Johs Large Sandblasted Brandy Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Denmark’s Mogens “Johs” Johansen made his first pipe in 1983, beginning as a self-taught artisan while receiving guidance from his friend, the late Peter Hedegaard. Johs established his own workshop in the mid-1980s, with his pipes quickly garnering significant acclaim. In fact, Joh’s became such a sensation in the Danish pipe smoking community that, at one point, he had to close his doors to the wider public as he was getting so many visitors that it was interrupting his work. Among the growing number of admirers of Johs’s work was none other than the legendary Bjarne Nielsen, who snapped up the former to make Bjarne pipes in 1992. Alongside Tonni Nielsen, Ph. Vigen, and Ole Bandholm, Johs ultimately became one of the main craftsmen behind the Bjarne brand. After Nielsen’s sudden passing in 2008, Johs returned his focus to making pipes under his own name, while also running the Gaden Pibemagerie pipe shop with his wife, Doris. As is common in the Danish artisan community, Johs has since paid forward the debt owed to his debt to Hedegaard by helping to cultivate newer generations of pipe makers, mentoring artisans such as Knud Bech, Johannes Hoffman, Dieter Gottschling. There’s nothing quite like a Danish brandy; broad, bulbous, and closer to its namesake than any rendition from the Anglo-French tradition out of which it first emerged. This one from Johs is beautifully shaped, as his pipes tend to be (working for Bjarne Nielsen will do that to you), though the standout element here is quite plainly the finishing, expressed as a craggy, ring grain sandblast that would also put many an Anglo-French giant to shame. This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.   Details: Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm Bowl Depth: 1.74″ / 44.19mm Weight: 2.1oz / 60g