Storm (Frank Storm)

Storm is a small-scale workshop named after American pipe repairman and craftsman Frank R. Storm. The brand took shape around a one-man bench rather than a mass-production factory: Storm's real reputation comes not from making new pipes but from restoring other people's pipes to usable condition. In this respect he is counted among the well-known figures of America's "repair master" tradition.

A Craft Learned at the Bench

According to accounts, Storm started out around 1970 doing part-time repairs at the local Edward's pipe shop. He learned the craft not in school but from the broken pipe that landed on his bench. A few years later, in 1976, he took over a tobacco shop that was about to close; along with the shop came the bench and tools he had trained on. In this way retail sales and the maintenance of customers' pipes were brought together under one roof. These dates are largely drawn from the pipe community's own compilations and have not been cross-checked against independent documents.

Over time his business reach extended well beyond a single city. According to records, Storm worked regularly with more than seventy-five pipe shops and over eighty individual collectors across the country. The same records also state that he ran a repair arrangement with the Italian maker Savinelli; the scope of that arrangement and the years it covered are unknown.