Roger Wallenstein

Roger Wallenstein was born on the Main, reared on the Lahn and settled on the Saar, yet still at home on the Kenmare River. The grandson, son, brother, and father of pipe smokers, Wallenstein enjoyed his first pipe at 14. "Even before my first kiss? For sure!"

As a student, Wallenstein made a "pilgrimage" to Copenhagen in a Citroen 2 CV. He bought and marveled at pipes made by Larsen and Bang, was bowled over by Anne Julie. Since those days, Wallenstein became a lawyer, husband, and the father of three children. Along the way he acquired the tranquility, carefulness, and patience necessary to make pipes.

Earlier, while still in those rough-and-ready years, Wallenstein made friends with Pit Rohrbach. Their mutual interests include Ireland, old English sports cars, Bonsai, the love of seafood, and for some time now, pipe making.

In 2006 Wallenstein made friends with Brad Pohlmann. The result are pipes which unite Wallenstein's incredible imagination of new shapes with Brad's superb sandblasting work:

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In 2008 Wallenstein created a totally new finish, which was first named "Flotsam", and later on called "Driftwood". By treating the briar with a self-composed solution the pipes look to be made from driftwood. Wallenstein has been experimenting with different colors and the results are show in the pictures below.*

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  Stage 1, Flotsam

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  Stage 2, Driftwood

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  Stage 3, Longfords

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  Stage 4, Big Butcher Boy

Also in 2008, Wallenstein introduced the "Graffiti" series. As we might expect from Wallenstein, it is a very unique series of pipe shapes. Also new is the Ironaut. A combination of briar and titanium. Wallenstein is continuing to work on this idea, so perhaps we will more along these lines in the near future.

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  Graffiti Series

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  Titan, Ironaut Series

Update november 2009. Wallenstein has created a new principle of smoking a pipe comfortable. He called it The Jackbone pipe. The mouthpiece is constructed to rest on your chin. With this mouthpiece you are able to hold a bigger pipe comfortable between your teeth. The pictures give you an overview of the shapes, all carrying Irish related names.

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  Acorn

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  Britta's Bonnet

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  Fingal's Cave

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  Grafton Street

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  Rasharkin

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  Tahilla

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  Tinkerbelle

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  Tullycanna

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  Yewberry

When the subject is German pipe makers, Wallenstein's remarkable innovations in combination with his beautiful crafting of "normal" pipes, has inspired a good deal of discussion.

In September of 2008 Wallenstein stopped selling directly to his customers when on the occasion of the 30th Inter-tabac Fair Dortmund, Otto & Kopp of Offenbach took over the worldwide distribution of Wallenstein pipes (excluding the USA).

Contact Information

Email: mailto:info@blue-lobster-pipes.com
Website: http://www.blue-lobster-pipes.com/
Distribution (excluding the USA): http://www.otto-kopp.de/; USA: http://www.smokershaven.com/wallenstein.aspx

• Contributions on the Driftwood, Graffiti, and Ironaut series courtesy of Gerrit Jan.