Ailarov

Ailarov is the name of the workshop the Russian pipe maker Sergey Ailarov runs alone in Moscow. Pipe making in Russia, compared with established centers such as France or Denmark, is a pursuit not even half a century old; Ailarov is counted among the few names from this young craft best known outside the country.

Before the Workbench

Ailarov was born in 1973 in Vladikavkaz, in the Caucasus. His first professional training was in music: he studied jazz guitar and composition. At twenty-five he settled in Moscow and worked for a time in photography; it was also in this city that he began making pipes.

According to records, the start of it all was a pipe given to him as a gift on his thirtieth birthday. Ailarov first turned to collecting pipes, then tried growing his collection with pieces of his own making, carving his first pipe by hand from a block of briar. Through the introduction of a Moscow tobacconist he is said to have met Michail Revyagin, one of the established figures in the Russian pipe circle, learned the basics of the craft at his workshop for a time, and, after acquiring the necessary tools, set up his own workshop once that period ended.