Zehnder Pipes
Zehnder Pipes are made by Yosef S. Zehnder.
Autobiography
I was born in the mid-90s, in the Inland Empire area of Southern California, in a small and quiet agricultural town called Hemet, where weather is an endless summer.
I have very fond memories of walking in the vast fruit groves in the evenings with my siblings - the sky ablaze with beautiful shades of red, hours before sunset. Surrounded by the majestic camel hump mountains of San Jacinto, the smell of earth, sagebrush, and citrus blossoms, lingered in the warm air. Colorful cacti that seemed to come from another planet grew along every hillside. The wildlife is so diverse, that we would often come across a large variety of insects, reptiles, and other creatures on our adventures. This gave me a strong love and appreciation for nature at a very young age.
But that was just a fraction of my upbringing. My parents were devout Christian missionaries, and so we traveled and moved often. Our mission trips would oscillate between Europe and North America, but our homebase remained between my birthplace in Southern California, and father’s country, Switzerland.
I lived in Switzerland for a total of about 6 years, on and off. The place I grew up in during this era was the North-Western part of Switzerland, in a region called the Bernese-Jura. The area is world renowned for being the birthplace of Swiss watchmaking and having some of the best CNC, high precision tooling, and machinery manufacturing– an industry in which my father made a living, prior to committing his life to missions. Since the official language of the region is French, I quickly became fluent.
Although it was tough adapting to a new language and culture, I am grateful for the experience. Not many people can say that they’ve had the chance to roam the same streets, forests, mountains, and frequent the same schools as their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. During these years, my Swiss family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) would often gather together for holiday celebrations. Many of them were heavy cigarette smokers, so I developed fond memories surrounding the smell of tobacco. I loved the odor so much in fact, that I recall at one point, telling my best friend in secondary school that I wanted to smoke pipes and cigars when I grew up.
In the summer of 2011, we relocated back to the States, only this time, for good. My parents had laid their missionary visions to rest, and it was time to adapt back into a more “normal” life. About a year later, we were finally settled - I was in my junior year of high school at the time. My brother and I had taken up jobs helping out our neighbor, who lived just down the hill, in restoring old classic cars. We were simultaneously running a joint venture in selling second-hand luxury brand clothing online.
Intro to Pipe Smoking
In the fall of 2012, the idea of smoking pipes and cigars came back to mind. I thought to myself “Why should I wait until I am old to enjoy life?” So, I pitched the idea to my brother, and we bought a few tins of McClelland and C&D, along with a couple Cobs and Chinese factory pipes on eBay - where it was still the Wild West. We began smoking our pipes every other evening on the hill behind our home, hiding behind the yucca and sage brush from our parents, as we watched the beautiful sunsets, in silence.
A couple years later, I had begun attending University in the Bay Area, in pursuit of a degree in international business. During my first year, I smoked my pipe and cigars in the evening on campus. However, about a year later, our campus joined the war against tobacco, and became a tobacco free zone. So, the last few years of college, I barely smoked.
Fast forward to 2018, I had been married for about a year, and was living with my lovely wife in eastern Washington, where we had relocated. At some point, I was let go from my job, and was looking for something to do during the downtime I had from applying for jobs. It was at that time that I once again picked up my pipe and began smoking while I walked my dog. One day I decided to search for pipes on Instagram, and to my great surprise, discovered a very large and enthusiastic community of pipe-smokers. This fueled my love for the hobby, and eventually led to my tinkering with unfinished factory pipes and cob modifications about a year later.
Learning the Craft
As a very hands-on and artistic person, I very slowly began adding tools to my pipe-tinkering arsenal, and progressed from simply modifying pipes, to making them entirely by hand.
I learned a lot on my own through a plethora of valuable resources found all over the internet. From the helpful posts on the Pipe Maker’s Forum, to an unending wealth of tutorials on YouTube, I absorbed everything that I could.
Eventually, I wanted to gain some in-person experience and knowledge, so I contacted the Seattle Pipe Club, asking if they knew of any regional pipe-makers. To my luck, Matt Gus, the founder of the club, reached out to me and told me about Kadesh Swanson (KJ Pipes), and Robert Amundson (Amundson Pipes), who were SPC Club Members and makers living in Washington. I quickly emailed the two makers, only to find out that Robert had just relocated to Alaska. Kadesh, on the other hand, lives in Olympia, and was kind enough to have me in his shop a couple of times.
Since then, I have relocated to the Midwest, and I have had the great honor of visiting the shops of Abe Herbaugh, Matt Roussell, and Robert Amundson. Robert, as luck would have it, now lives about an hour and a half northeast of me, having relocated here shortly after me.
I am still relatively new to the craft, and striving to learn as much as I can, and improve my work. My style is greatly inspired by the freehand school of master artisans from Denmark, paired with the organic flow of Japanese pipes, but traditional Anglo-French shapes play a large role in my inspiration, as well.
The act of pipe-making to me, is highly inspired by nature and the intangible subconsciousness of the soul. It is a meditation, an ephemeral dance between man and nature. My goal is to make every pipe better than the last, and to maintain a high level of quality, precision, and consistency, all balanced by artistry. I want my pipes to provide the best smoking experience to the modern pipe-smoker, becoming valuable friends and heirlooms.
- Zehnder Pipe Examples
Zehnder Pipes, 3 Year Anniversary ‘War Crown’ – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, 3 Year Anniversary ‘War Crown’ (Backside View) - 2023
Zehnder Pipes, Elcira (Right Side View) – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, Elcira (Left Side View) – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Vintage’ Samurai (Left Side View) – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Vintage’ Samurai (Right Side View) – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Kintsugi’ Nautilus - 2022
Zehnder Pipes, Biel - 2021
Zehnder Pipes, Biel (Top Close-Up) - 2021
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Icon’ Full-Bent Billiard – 2024
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Barrel’ Quarter-Bent Bulldog – 2024
Zehnder Pipes, Belge/Billiard w. ‘Topographer Rustication’ – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Forest Ranger’ Zulu – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Svendborg’ Quarter-Bent Rhodesian – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Marigold’ Straight Brandy – 2023
Zehnder Pipes, ‘Octobilliard’ Paneled Billiard/Lovat – 2023
Contact Information
E-mail: zehnder.pipes@gmail.com Website: https://www.zehnderpipes.com/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/zehnderpipes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/zehnder.pipes
Retailers:
China: https://www.instagram.com/dooku_pipes USA:Justforhim.com