Edwin Pipes (Kris Edwin Barber)

Edwin Pipes is the brand under which American pipe maker Kris Edwin Barber signs his work. Barber works in Grand Marais, at the northeastern tip of Minnesota on the north shore of Lake Superior; the town, seat of Cook County, is one of the gateways to the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters wilderness area.

The brand is one example of artisan production run from a single bench: shapes rebuilt on each piece rather than a series mold, and limited output.

From Repair to Making

By Barber's account, his first encounter with the pipe dates to years spent living in the Bavarian Alps in Germany. The road that led to making opened in 2010, when he encountered a high-grade handmade pipe. Barber began not with making but with repair: he collected worn estate pipes cheaply, restored them, and put them back into circulation. By his own account he repaired hundreds of pipes over nearly two years, and during this time learned hands-on the criteria for correctly drilling the airway, tenon clearance, angle, and wall thickness. After buying a briar burl and making his first pipe in 2012, he never returned to repair work. He sustained pipe making alongside a corporate job for six years; in 2018 he left a mid-level management position for full-time production and moved his workshop to the shore of Lake Superior.