Bjarne

Bjarne is a pipe brand Danish maker Bjarne Nielsen (1941-2008) founded in Copenhagen in 1973. The brand was less the signature of a single bench than a system for gathering and distributing: the work of Danish carvers Nielsen selected was brought together under a shared stamp and sent out from there to foreign markets.

For this reason, Nielsen's name is remembered less as one of the makers behind Danish School pipes and more as one of the agents who put those pipes into international circulation.

From a Ministry to the Pipe Business

Records indicate Nielsen's relationship with the pipe began at sixteen, when he also made his first pipes for his own use. The first part of his career, though, was spent far from the bench: after studying business administration in Copenhagen, he was assigned at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to build overseas connections for exporting firms. This work put him directly face to face with the demand for freehand pipes in the 1960s; the capacity of Danish workshops was not enough to meet the demand coming in. Nielsen tried to fill the gap with pipes he made himself, and the orders he received soon reached a volume that could not be carried on alongside a civil-service post. In 1973 he left the ministry to take up the business full-time.