Karl Erik

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Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942 - 2004)

was born in Aalborg (Jutland), just a few miles from the very northernmost tip of Denmark.

He began smoking a pipe when he was 14 and upon leaving school he started an apprenticeship in the craft as a lithographer at the age of 16. While working as an apprentice he began hand carving pipes as a hobby. Many were given as gifts to his more senior colleagues. Upon completion of his apprenticeship he moved to Nairobi, Kenya to work as a lithographer during the 1962 war. While in that war torn country, he was unable to procure pipes for himself. In the face of such a predicament, he chose to continue to make pipes for his own use rather than go without.

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Returning to Denmark after three years he couldn't find a well paid occupation in his job, and so he began making a few pipes on the side to boost his income choosing his prenames "Karl Erik" - logo "KE" - for his label. When he managed to find some major Copenhagen pipe stores willing to sell his pieces his reputation grew little by little and he was finally able to purchase more and better machinery and began working full time as a pipe maker.


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The manufacture era

Growing demand for his pipes made it necessary to look for a larger workshop and hiring first co-workers around 1967/68. A most important step ahead in his career was the contract with Wally Frank Ltd. of NYC who were in search of attractive, well made but affordable Danish freehands and fancy pipes fitting to their vast offer of low end or midrange pieces but with a stress on quality.

"Attractive, well made but affordable Danish freehands and fancy pipes" - this was exactly what Karl Erik offered! So to say that's the kernel of his lifelong philosophy as a pipemaker! And indeed, Karl Erik always did it his way and always somewhat differently as others.

As one of the few notable Danes Karl Erik Ottendahl dedicated himself to the needs of the normal pipe smoker with a normal income. In the end he was one of the last of this tier. He never made any pretence of the fact that his "hand mades" were prefabricated to a large extent on automated machines and only the last steps of fine-shaping and finishing were carefully made by hand. But he never employed a copy milling, so many KE pipes may look very similar but not two are identic. As well the bulk of the stems was supplied by Stanwell in a close-to-finished state. Stanwell also did the the sand blasting for KE to a large extent.

All in all he was much more successful with this peculiar manner of fabrication than many of the low-output artisans who populate the pipemakers' Olympus but hardly know how to pay the electricity bill. Always keeping a watchful eye on quality his career developed fine and he was frequently making pipes for various labels in Denmark and the United States. While doing this he administered a manufacture employing up to fifteen craftsmen, each of them specialising in certain steps of the production. Namely Bent Nielsen (see Benner) and Peder Christian Jeppesen (see Neerup) later became respectable pipemakers on their own.


Brands produced by Karl Erik Ottendahl (afak):

  • Champ of Denmark ¹
  • Jobey Dansk (For Weber Pipe Co.. The pipes were illustrated in the cataloges of The Tinderbox from 1970's - 80's.) ²
  • Knute (Also known as "Knute of Denmark"; more a second with frequent rustications)
  • Larsen & Stigart (Copenhagen pipe shop.) ¹
  • Shelburne ¹
  • Sven Egholm (A second brand.)
  • Wenhall (For Wenhall Pipes, New York) ³


Grading and the II S problem: KE's old grading used numbers ascending from 4 to 1. The entirely hand made one of a kind pieces were stamped "Ekstravagant". Quite simple.


KE discontinued all exports to the United States in 1987 due to waning sales and attempts of his business partners to screw down prices.

Back to the roots

During this period he did make of some of his own handmade pipes, but he felt that the responsibility of managing the factory did not give him the freedom he wished he had. Accordingly, in 1990, he went back to working on his own. He believed that he could produce better work if he worked alone, though his principle reason was simply that he missed the quiet,pleasant atmosphere that a one man shop afforded him. According to Mr. Ottendahl, he has been much happier since he returned to making all of the pipes himself. Certainly, the results reflect his rediscovered happiness with the pipe making craft.

Though Karl Erik's briar mostly comes from Morocco or Greece, he frequently purchases elsewhere too. He doesn't consider the briar origin to be particularly important provided the briar is well cured. Therefore, he simply purchases the best briar he can find, rather than purchase from only one or two regions.

Karl Erik's style emphasizes the wood over all other contributing factors by allowing the grain to determine the ultimate shape of the piece. He further emphasizes the natural, organic, flowing shape of his bowls with hand cut stems and a variety of different bands. These superb pieces of remarkable quality are, almost certainly, the least expensive high-quality hand made pipes coming from Denmark today.

Around 1998/99 he traded the German rights to his brand name "Karl Erik" to Planta, better known as the proprietor of Design Berlin (db). Thus - though db copied the style of the old Karl Eriks pretty closely - a recent KE offered for sale in Germany is unfortunately about as Danish as Eisbein mit Sauerkraut.

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Ottendahl? While everywhere else a Karl Erik pipe remained a Karl Erik pipe made by Karl Erik himself, he began signing some of his pipes with the new brand name "Ottendahl" The Ottendahl label was strictly used to continue distributing his own pipes in Germany only! But as his Viking ancestors some Ottendahl pipes discovered a way to cross the pond and turned up in the United States. KE officially resumed sales to the USA after 13 years in 2000! This caused a certain confusion among US pipesmokers and some clever US pipetraders imputed the Ottendahls with a better quality than the usual Karl Erik pipes to take advantage of the favourable situation asking considerable higher prices for Ottendahl pipes.

During the following years KE produced a little more than 2000 pipes per year, selling the bulk of them in Germany and the US. That is surely a respectable output, considering the largely hand-made character of these pipes. Karl Erik Ottendahl was planning to make 2500 pipes in 2004 but he died surprisingly suffering a stroke in his home in Korsør on Zealand on the 12th of September 2004.

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¹ It is almost impossible to draw a sharp line between some of these brands... Larsen & Stigart - once a famous Copenhagen pipe shop, now almost forgotten - offered pipes produced by KE stamped "Larsen & Stigart" as well as pipes stamped "Larsen & Stigart" + "Champ of Denmark" or "Larsen & Stigart" + "Shelburne". Almost needless to say, there are pipes stamped "Champ of Denmark" or "Shelburne" only. And the only reason is unconsisting stamping??? (BTW Larsen & Stigart employed own indoor carvers for appr. one decade - e.g. Søren Eric Andersen. They even managed to supply Dunhill with wild danish fancy pipes.)

² Jobey - obviously only as a ghost brand - was transferred to Saint-Claude, France to be manufactured by Butz-Choquin in 1987 - the very same year when Ottendahl discontinued all exports to the United States.

³ Michael Kabik, who made freehands for Wenhall for a couple of years, reported that Wenhall Pipes folded shortly after moving from New York to Miami, Florida. Hence "Wenhall - Made in Danmark" might be a great rarity.