Erik Nielsen

Erik Nielsen is a Danish pipemaker born in 1949. He came to pipemaking in mid-life, crossing over from an entirely different profession, and quickly became known as a maker embracing the measured, clean-lined outlook of the Danish School tradition. According to published contact information, his workshop is in the town of Vejle on the country's Jutland peninsula.

A Late but Determined Start

Nielsen's youth was intertwined with the pipe: his father and brother were pipe collectors, and he himself started smoking a pipe at thirteen or fourteen. His family came from trades built on handwork: his father was a tailor, and tailoring and hairdressing were common among close relatives. Nielsen himself trained as a hairdresser, though he never practiced the trade. He worked for Danish State Railways (DSB) from 1980 to 2000, and could not return to the job after a workplace accident. The secondhand pipemaking tools he had bought with a friend shortly before the accident unexpectedly became the starting point of his new profession. He is said to have made his first pipes entirely by trial and error, using these old tools.