About Pipe Maker Karl Erik

Karl Erik pipes have only recently been reintroduced to the United States after a thirteen year break. In 1987, Karl Erik felt that demand for pipes in the U.S. had waned to the point that it was no longer worth his while exporting here. Now that pipe smoking is back on the rise in the United States (and given the recent increases in demand for Danish freehands), Karl Erik pipes are again being imported. Karl Erik was born in Aalborg in 1942, just a few miles from the very northernmost tip of Denmark. He began his career as a Lithographer as an apprentice in the craft at the age of 16. While working as an apprentice he began hand carving pipes almost as a hobby and to give as gifts to his more senior colleagues. Smoking a Karl Erik Freehand is like smoking a piece of art!