Harkam Pfeifen (Karl Harkam)

Harkam Pfeifen is a one-man pipe workshop based in the town of Wundschuh, just south of Graz, in Austria's southern Styria state. The person running the workshop alone is Karl Harkam, born in 1958. Harkam came to pipe making late and by an indirect route, carving his first pipes in 2005 while keeping his main occupation. In later years he deliberately kept output small, never exceeding twenty-five pipes a year, yet he has become known among collectors well beyond Europe.

The Master's Path

Harkam has no apprenticeship background in pipe making; he is counted among the self-taught masters. Records indicate his working life was spent in commercial office work, and that he also trained as a chef. The workshop was therefore shaped from the start as a side pursuit, and mass production was never a goal. Harkam says he owes part of what he learned to his briar supplier; according to his account, he sources blocks from Italy, from Mimmo Romeo, founder of the Romeo Pipe workshop. This connection has brought an Austrian amateur's work close to Calabria's briar tradition from the very first day.