Yves Bäcksteiner (Backstoner)

Yves Bäcksteiner is a Swiss handmade pipe maker who lived in Basel and made pipes between 2013 and 2020. In the community he is known by the name he derived from his surname, Backstoner. Over his seven active years he completed, by his own count, roughly two hundred pipes, and stopped pipe making in 2020. Despite a small production volume, he carved out a distinct place among collectors with the surface treatment he called "Sea Star."

Workshop Background

The maker's craft background predates pipes and lies in shoemaking. In 2007 he began training in bespoke shoemaking, and after years of this training set up his own workshop. This field, built around proportion, line, and color harmony, also laid the groundwork for his later pipe work.

His turn to pipes came at the start of 2013, and he made his first examples in May of that year. By his own account, his starting point was the repair of estate pipes: this work taught him the structure of a pipe, the materials used, and where to source them. His first pipe was not briar but a plain square poker made of bog oak (morta).

In the early period his workshop had no lathe; he shaped both the bowl and the mouthpiece, including the tenon, entirely by hand. He also notes that he did not use ready-made mouthpieces.

Fairs and Circle

The maker's first public appearance was at the Speyer pipe fair in Germany, where he exhibited the ten pipes he had made to that date. At the same fair he met maker Christian Wolfsteiner, who uses the Tarok Briar stamp, and records that he considers him his mentor. Among the names he credits with contributing to his development he also counts Steffen Müller, Uwe Maier, Roger Wallenstein, and Michail Revyagin. During this productive period he and a few colleagues used the name Freemind to gather under one heading the new shapes and styles they were experimenting with.

The Sea Star Surface and Stamp

Bäcksteiner's most cited surface treatment arose from the unexpected result of bleaching experiments. A process some German makers tried with chemicals, hoping to imitate bleached briar pipes, blackened the bowl instead of whitening it. Continuing rustication experiments on this squat bulldog produced a texture reminiscent of a starfish, and this treatment was named "Sea Star." Because preparing the surface took a great deal of time, only 25 pipes were made with this treatment.

The stamping remained simple throughout: a single capital "Y," the initial of the maker's name. On pipes from the first year, date letters engraved by hand appear beside this letter. Records indicate that a single pipe was set apart with the "Black Opal" grade and had a real opal set into its mouthpiece; the maker later stated there were two more pipes that deserved the same distinction.