Klein-Pfeifendesign (Peter Klein)

Klein-Pfeifendesign is the small-scale pipe workshop run by German-born master Peter Klein under his own name. Klein trained as a carpenter, worked for many years as a technical staff member at a school, and began pipemaking as a leisure pursuit in 1988. At the end of 2007 he settled in Denmark with his family and moved his workshop to near Ringkøbing on the west coast of Jutland. For this reason the brand is claimed among both German and Danish workshops.

The Workshop's Working Order

Klein chose not to turn pipemaking into his primary livelihood, keeping carpentry as a part-time occupation so as to find room to work freely at the bench. According to records his annual output is limited to a few hundred pieces, and each pipe is shaped individually; series molds are not used. His pipes reach collectors mainly in Germany, the United States, and the Far East. This scale allows the maker to decide for himself how much time to give each piece; the workshop's recognition also owes much to word of mouth among collectors.

He also handles the sourcing of the wood he uses himself: he is known to travel to Italy's Calabria region and pick out plateau briar blocks one by one. Selling some of these blocks to fellow pipemakers has made the workshop a small raw-material source as well.