Sven Knudsen

Sven Knudsen ranks among the first generation of masters of hand-shaped pipemaking in Denmark. He was the elder brother of Teddy Knudsen. Because he spent much of his career under other people's brands, his name is often mentioned second when the Danish school is discussed. His working life falls into three chapters: his bench years at two large Copenhagen workshops, the setup he built for himself in the countryside, and the short-lived partnership he ran with his brother.

The Suhr's Years and Shapes Credited to Others

Records indicate he joined the Suhr's Pibemageri workshop in Copenhagen around the mid-1950s, brought in by Poul Rasmussen, who at the time was training under Sixten Ivarsson. Like every newcomer to the workshop, he started at the repair bench, but soon reached the point of finishing a pipe entirely on his own from start to finish. Because Rasmussen was not a regular fixture at the bench, the weight of production quickly shifted onto Knudsen's shoulders. The long-term result was that his share in Danish pipe history went unrecognized for a long time: some of the shapes produced in those years were later credited to Rasmussen's name. Hans Jonny Nielsen, later known by the nickname "Former," also trained under Knudsen at the same workshop.