Cornelius Mänz
The young pipe maker Cornelius Mänz is no longer unknown to pipe enthusiasts all over the world, since he introduced his pipes in 2001 to a broader public. I noticed his pipes on eBay Germany at the beginning of 2001. With the published details, I could see that he came from a neighboring town and it was certainly only logical, to invite him to a meeting of pipe enthusiasts held in Ulm, where his pipes immediately met with a great approval.
In the meantime, Cornelius was reported in international professional journals by the pipe enthusiast Peter Hemmer ("Amici della Pipa"), who is a German living in Rome, and also by the well known Belgian pipe-writer Erwin van Hove ("Pipes & Tobaccos"). Cornelius' work can be seen at high-profile international pipe shows, represented by Per Billhäll.
Since Cornelius is on the one hand a pipe smoker and on the other hand a well known designer and outstanding graphic artist, it was only a question of time brfore he ventured into creating his own pipes. Many highly respected pipemakers such as Rainer Barbi, the late Bo Nordh and Tom Eltang have highly praised the work of Cornelius.
His pipes are shaped exclusively on a sanding disk and and a belt sander. The pipes of Cornelius Mänz are of a beautiful variety of shapes and sweeping elegance. The manual processing is perfect. Cornelius' pipes are extremely precise. He tolerates neither crooked drilling or the smallest deviation in the position of the draft hole in the shank and alignment to the centre of the bowl. His pipes are never putty filled. Tiny spots will be accepted or the pipe will be sand blasted or rusticated in a very fine way. His sand blasted pipes are more common today, since Cornelius is now able to use the equipment of a neighboring factory.
All of his stems are hand cut, but not regularily fitted for 9mm filters. Cornelius uses decorating materials like bamboo, rare wood, ivory and horn with pleasure. He is well known for excellent stemwork and, together with Rainer Barbi and Wolle Becker, he is, in my very personal opinion, the uncrowned king of finest stems.
This is an excellent interview of Cornelius on TobaccoDays
Courtesy of "Pipendoge" Jörg Rolf Lehmann
Gallery
Contact Information
Cornelius Mänz Fizionstraße 2 72762 Reutlingen Germany Telephone: 07121 - 37 12 97 Telefax: 07121 - 37 12 97 Mail: mailto:maenz@corneliusmaenz.com Web: Cornelius Mänz Workshop Uhlandstraße 41/1 72764 Reutlingen Germany Telephone: 07121 - 49 27 76