Axel Glasner

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Axel Glasner profile.jpg
Glasner nomenclature. Image courtesy ScandPipes.

Axel Glasner was born in Trier, Germany. He currently resides in the area with his family on an old farm, and has done for the last 30 years.[1]

At the beginning of the 1990s, Glasner studied in Cologne, where he met Peter Heinrichs, an expert in pipes and tobacco, and then-owner of the German tobacconist store of the same name. Heinrichs was the first to encourage Glasner to make his own pipes.

Glasner was not in contact with any other pipe makers, however, meaning he had to teach himself the craft of pipe making. Despite not having any direct tutelage from other pipe makers, Glasner says that he was inspired by certain of them. His primary inspirations in his approach to pipe making were the Danish masters Poul Ilsted and Jens ‘Tao’ Nielsen.

This Svendborgian influence on Glasner’s pipes is evident in his work. Glasner pipes continue to explore motifs made famous by Ilsted and Tao, such as the parabolic curves and the faceting favoured by the former, or the stubbiness and the juxtaposition of straight and round lines that are signatures of the latter.

A facet-shank Rhodesian. Image courtesy Axel Glasner.

When it comes to making a pipe, Glasner considers it very important that he has a desired shape in mind and that this shape is realised precisely. ‘Precision’ is certainly a fitting word to describe Glasner’s pipes, whose geometrical figures and meticulous symmetry could easily be mistaken for the work of industrial machinery.

Glasner pipes have been sold by retailers such as Peter Heinrichs and Scandpipes. A prominent figure in the contemporary German pipe making scene, Glasner is one of the teachers Dirk Heinemann credits for inducting him into the craft.




Gallery

Contact Information

Axel Glasner
Römerstrasse 6
54310 Olk
Germany

Phone: +49 (0)6585 319
E-Mail: axel@derpfeifenmacher.de
Website: Glasner - Der Pfeifenmacher
  1. Biographical information for this article was provided by Mr Glasner via email. The remainder of the article was written as a commentary on Mr Glasner's work,