Giacomo Penzo

Giacomo Penzo is an industrial designer and pipe master born in Vicenza, in northeastern Italy. He turned his workshop into a commercial business in 2015, and four years later moved to Ireland to work as a pipe specialist at Peterson. His name is thus tied both to a small-scale Italian workshop and to the manufacturing practice of a well-established factory brand.

The Workshop's Materials and Working Method

Penzo's output is weighted toward classic shapes, a preference he justifies by their functionality and their freedom from the pull of fashion. The rough outline of a classic body is cut on the lathe, the surface is refined on a disc sander, and the stem is hand-cut and worked from rod stock. The sequence changes for the maker's freehand pieces, which lean toward the Danish School: the body is first shaped on the disc so the grain direction is brought out, and drilling and the stem are left until last.

The body's principal material is briar, alongside strawberry tree wood (corbezzolo) and olive wood. Stems use hard rubber (ebonite), cumberland, and methacrylate; spacer rings between shank and stem use boxwood, palm, white walnut, horn, and bamboo. Alongside single commissions, the workshop also takes on cleaning, restoration, and stem replacement work.