Pipe Maker Brad Pohlmann on Radio Show of June 4, 2024

[admin]

Our featured interview on tonight's Pipes Magazine Radio Show is with Pipe Maker Brad Pohlmann. Brad has been crafting pipes for decades. His pipes are works of art and masterpieces in engineering. You’ll often find exotic woods, horn and bamboo as accents on Brad’s pipes. He now shares a workshop with fellow pipe maker Silver Gray. At the top of the show Brian will discuss the best way to sell pipes that you no longer want.

The show airs every Tuesday at 8:00pm eastern US time, and can be found at PipesMagazine.com and all podcast apps.

 

[bent1]

Brad is a superb person. I met him at a Chicago pipe show, I think it was in 2008. He took time to show his wares, and let me fawn over a favorite shape of mine,The Colonel. It’s a 1/4 bent bullcap.

 

[georged]

Highly recommended.

Brad has been making top-level artisan pipes for a long time that incorporate a trained machinist's understanding and appreciation of materials and construction. He's the best of both worlds, in other words: artist + technician = complete pipemaker.

With the Net Era proliferation of self-proclaimed experts coming and going on a monthly basis, and visual-only "imaginer" artists who think of briar simply as canvas, it's becoming increasingly difficult for legitimate students to find quality sources for pipe making information.

So, if you're one of them, here's your chance. Wisdom and guidance from the complete package.

 

[jbfrady]

Fantastic interview! Brad Pohlmann is one of the icons of his craft and I admire his philosophy that a pipe that can't smoke to the bottom isn't a pipe.

He's a kind and approachable man and you did a great job getting him talking, and of digging out that everlasting enthusiasm that makes him one of the greats.

Personally, I find myself chasing the initial enjoyment of a new blend you've never tried before and it blows your socks off - as in my mind if not my palette, the same old thing only grows more boring for me. It's infuriating, really. But for Brad Pohlmann, the opposite is endearingly true.

This past Muletown show I opened a 20 year old tin of Bjarne de Luxe Flake and offered it to those around. Brad said he'd already smoked all he wanted for the evening but he asked if he could just smell it. How could I not comply?

I handed him the tin and at a single whiff his smile grew wider than his mustache, they he stuffed his nose in that tin like he intended to put a dent in it and breathed as deeply as his lungs would allow.

Two thoughts arose in my mind at once. 1: He should've bought that Bjarne's dinner first... But 2: Man, I wish I could still conjure up that kind of love for just a whiff of tobacco again. The nostalgia that lasted only a moment for me... I'll be damned if this man hadn't captured it for more than my lifetime.

That kind of love is not just what made him great at what he does, but that's what keeps him great.

P.S... My condolences for the loss of a charismatic gentleman mentor like Mr. Goodman, and my apologies for the long comment!

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Always a joy to hear Brad Pohlmann speak. Great name, great guy, great carver. It really is incredible even after decades carving pipes he still finds new approaches or techniques or ways of looking at pipe making. His pipes truly are beautiful. One of my bucket list pipes for sure.

 

[mbmoehl]

This was a great interview, love hearing from the many pipe artisans and their approach to how they make pipes. I'd love to hear from more female pipe makers like Silver Grey as well.