by Alan Schwartz

Copenhagen's Poul Winslow is a pipernaker with a philosophy: he sells the best pipe he can make at a price you can afford. He also admires hard work and full production, believes in catering to markets rather than dictating, and dislikes pretension wrapped in high prices.

Winslow, 47, learned his craft in the factory of the famous Preben Holm, freehand pipernaker of the 1960s and 1970s - glory days of the Danish free-form pipe. Starting as an apprentice right out of high school in 1968, working his way up through the ranks until he became production manager, Winslow left when the factory closed down for good in 1986, and went out on his own.

"Preben was a genius," he says. "Maybe a bit wild, always flying from idea to idea and impatient for results. But could he turn a pipe! Some of the most extreme free-hands came out of our workshop in the '70s, and whatever his critics say, they sold like crazy, mostly in America. And when it came to finishing, he was the best in the business."

What Winslow learned in his years with Holm was how to keep up a high level of production while still making pipes completely by hand. His personal preference for shapes was also a major influence: "I like to make and smoke modified versions of the classics, like the poker I made for myself that everyone wants me to make for them ... with the silver base and rim. Or I like an elongated billiard with a chimney bowl."

But then there's the market, explains Winslow. "Germany wants a large, chunky pipe in a rounded shape; the U.S. wants a large pipe too, but not so large as in the past, and prefers a more elongated 'flower' shape," he says, one that blossoms outward from base to rim. "Preben taught me to make what the market wants as well as to satisfy my own design sense, and I do both. I'm a craftsman, not an 'artiste'."

Other great Danish pipernakers, such as the S. Bang duo of Per Hansen and Ulf Noltensmeier, worked in the same factory in the late '60s and early '70s but didn't stay long enough to become indoctrinated by the methods. "It wasn't our idea of pipemaking," they said in a 1997 interview. (See "The Danish Revolution," PipeSmoke, Winter 1997.)

"My idea of pipemaking," Winslow says, " is to produce as many as I can in an artisan workshop environment, and give the retailer and consumer good value for money in something handmade and out of the ordinary."

What Winslow means by "artisan workshop" is a small factory with other people working alongside him. Depending on the season and the volume of orders ("they always come in overloads before the winter holidays and after the major trade shows in Germany and the U.S.," he says), he employs four to six workers in the small, overcrowded workshop located in a building behind his home, in a quiet suburb of Copenhagen.

"Oh, I can work by myself and make a pipe from raw wood to finished product," he says, "but I don't want to. I like being with others during the workday, and I think that the division of labor is not an idea I discovered all by myself. It works when you want to create volume." His workshop makes about 7,000 pipes a year.

Winslow does all the jobs when necessary - we've seen him cutting, sanding, and staining, as well as fitting ornaments, bands, and mouthpieces - but he prefers staining and coloring: "This is something else I learned from Preben Holm," he says, as he shifts from one group of bowls he's just stained to another group that has dried, and begins to buff off the surface color so that the stain remains only in the softer wood, highlighting the beautiful straight grain. "I have a special affinity for this process, and mix my own stains too, from color elements. No one else has that orange/brown. That's pure Winslow," he says with pride, as he points to a finished pipe.

Also pure Winslow is the use of elaborately wrought ornamentation in silver, gold, different woods, bone, horn, and acrylic. These top-of-the-line pipes with hand-cut mouthpieces and spectacular grain are highly popular in Germany, where his pipes are distributed by the Dunhill group, and are now catching on in America, where Lane Limited, also part of the Dunhill group, is Winslow's distributor. For handmade pipes of the highest quality, they are reasonable in price too, made possible by Pout Winslow's work ethic and organized production methods.

His capable and humorous wife Jette (pronounced "yetta"), looks after the administrative side of the business and helps in the final grading of the pipes. "I'm also the den mother to that group of Cub Scouts out there," she says with a laugh, gesturing towards the workshop from the patio of their house, where she's just made coffee and, yes, clanish, for the workshop team. "We should call these pastries 'American' because they're certainly not native to Denmark," she says with a laugh. "Come and get your coffee and 'American'! How does that sound?"

Stanwell Connection:
Dispelling the Myths
Since the earlier decades of this half-century, Poul Winslow has had a very special relationship with Stanwell, Denmark's largest pipe factory, and particularly with Jens Lilletund, Stanwell's managing director and Pout's closest friend. He acts as a consultant to Stanwell, and designs some pipes for them. An awareness of the rapport between the Winslow and Stanwell operations and the fact that their products are both distributed by Lane Ltd., has led to the rumor that Winslows are but fancy Stanwells and that Winslow's bowls are all fraised for him in the Stanwell factory. Pout vehemently denies the rumors. "Every pipe with my name on it is made here in my workshop, by me, by hand," exclaims Winslow.

"Occasionally, another maker will ask us to help finish a special order, usually for a private label brand he supplies, and sends us the series bowls [machine-made] to stain and polish, sometimes even the pre-formed mouthpieces to fit. If it's slow here, I do it. I have employees to pay, a business to run, and a life beyond making pipes. So the !@#$%A &*s hear about this and start a rumor that Winslow doesn't cut his own, but buys bowls and finishes them. It's all petty, backbiting jealousy. Because even the private labels I make myself are all handmade."

Winslow's take on the workings of the rumor mill is that "the ‘artistes' and their agents start these vicious rumors because they can't stand the idea that I produce so much and such good stuff for a price most people can pay. I don't think that beautiful pipes are just for the wealthy; that goes against everything I believe in."

From a foot soldier on the barricades of the earlier Danish (design) Revolution to the creator of his own distinctive quality pipe, Poul Winslow has come a long way. If the quality, price, and variety of his pipes continue to demonstrate his philosophy, then he's going to be a major force in the growing pipe boom.