Teddy Knudsen

Teddy Knudsen is counted among the second generation of masters of the hand-shaped pipe in Denmark. He has run his own workshop since 1970. Because of a working pattern that turns out few pipes and keeps each one in hand for a long time, his work is cited as an example of the narrow-production wing of the Danish school. His older brother is Sven Knudsen, of the same tradition's first generation.

From Carpentry to the Bench

He was born on 21 September 1947 in the south of the island of Sjælland. He completed his carpentry training in 1967, and did his military service from October of that year to October 1968 at a Royal Danish Air Force radar station. That the pipes he made off duty found buyers as soon as they were finished proved decisive in his choice of profession. After his discharge he entered W. Ø. Larsen's pipe workshop in Copenhagen, joining the team that shaped the shop's top-tier lines; Tonni Nielsen, who would later become known under his own name, also counts him among his masters. According to records, he went on afterward to work at Anne Julie's workshop, leaving there in 1970.

That same year he joined his brother's setup in the village of Tappernøje; the two brothers went into joint production under the name "Dantonian PipeWorks." The partnership did not last long; he left at the start of 1973 and moved into production under his own name. After working for many years in the south of Sjælland, he moved his workshop to Aarhus.