Seles Pipes (Stefan Seles)

Seles Pipes is the name of the one-man pipe bench Canadian Stefan Seles runs in Burlington, Ontario. The workshop's center of gravity is not new pipe production but repair and restoration; the bulk of the work that comes in has consisted of Brigham pipes. For a period, Seles was also known as the person representing Brigham at pipe shows in the United States.

Years at the Factory

Seles entered the trade in 2001, when he joined Brigham Enterprises in Toronto. The brand-management role he took on absorbed responsibilities that had until then rested with the production foreman: alongside pipe making and repair, the role also covered oversight of the tobaccos sold under the Brigham name or distributed by the company in Canada. When he started, only a handful of craftsmen remained at the factory running filter production, pipe making, and repair; each had more than thirty years of experience, and Seles's training progressed largely at their side.

What he learned was not confined to the Toronto bench. At the Lorenzetti workshop in Recanati, Italy, he took part in a two-year stretch of intermittent work with Alessandro and Luciano Lorenzetti, contributing to the development of chambers turned for Brigham; around the same period he had the chance to discuss technical matters with Rüdiger Lutz Will of the Reiner brand in Bünde, Germany. When the company moved production to Europe and the Toronto plant ceased operating, Seles stopped working directly for Brigham as well, though he has said he kept in touch with his former colleagues.