Steinhart (Briar Originals)

Steinhart is a short-lived signature that emerged in New Jersey in the 1970s, in the years American handmade pipe making was just taking root. Behind it is Vic Steinhart, nephew of Jack H. Weinberger, owner of the JHW Pipes brand.

Pipes bearing his own stamp can today be found only in collections; by contrast, the names that passed through the workshops Steinhart worked at and helped set up went on, in the following decades, to become among the country's well-known manufacturers.

Trained at Weinberger's Workshop

As JHW's order volume grew, young people from the surrounding neighborhood began to be taken on at the workshop; Steinhart, who lived next door, was one of them. It is said he made quick progress on freehand bodies, which demand skill and are shaped without relying on a ready template. Most of those working at the workshop's benches in those years were of high-school age; some of those who joined were friends who already knew each other. Mark Tinsky and Curt Rollar, who began working at the same place, would go on to found the workshop later known as American Smoking Pipe Co.