Yves Bäcksteiner (Backstoner)

Yves Bäcksteiner is a Swiss handmade pipe maker who lived in Basel and made pipes between 2013 and 2020. In the community he is known by the name he derived from his surname, Backstoner. Over his seven active years he completed, by his own count, roughly two hundred pipes, and stopped pipe making in 2020. Despite a small production volume, he carved out a distinct place among collectors with the surface treatment he called "Sea Star."

Workshop Background

The maker's craft background predates pipes and lies in shoemaking. In 2007 he began training in bespoke shoemaking, and after years of this training set up his own workshop. This field, built around proportion, line, and color harmony, also laid the groundwork for his later pipe work.

His turn to pipes came at the start of 2013, and he made his first examples in May of that year. By his own account, his starting point was the repair of estate pipes: this work taught him the structure of a pipe, the materials used, and where to source them. His first pipe was not briar but a plain square poker made of bog oak (morta).

In the early period his workshop had no lathe; he shaped both the bowl and the mouthpiece, including the tenon, entirely by hand. He also notes that he did not use ready-made mouthpieces.