Creative Briar Pipes

Creative Briar Pipes is a Michigan-based, one-man American pipe workshop founded by Al Perkowski in 1972. Pipes bearing the brand name are hand-shaped one at a time; since there is no catalogue of ready-made models, no two examples are ever identical.

An Apprenticeship in Michigan

The story behind the workshop begins with a single pipe bought in 1970. Perkowski soon became taken with the idea of making his own pipes, and this interest led him to knock on the door of the Malaga Pipe Company in Royal Oak, Michigan. Founded around 1939 by George Khoubesser, this business was known for producing most of the pipes it sold on its own bench. The questions Perkowski put to Emmanuel "Manny" Khoubesser, the shop's second-generation owner, stretched over two years; during this time the many blocks of briar spent developed both his hand and his sense of shape. In 1972, once he found his output good enough to sell, he began selling first to acquaintances and then to nearby pipe shops.