There are artisan pipe makers, and then there are guys who seem to have briar running through their veins. Sean Reum is firmly in the second camp.
Based in Montana, Sean has spent more than a decade building Reum Pipes into one of the most recognizable names in contemporary American artisan pipe making. He made his first pipes in 2013, was carving full-time by 2017, and somewhere along the way went from talented young maker to a carver whose work belongs in the conversation with the best American makers working today.
And the crazy part? The man is an absolute machine.
Sean produces at a pace that would make most one-man artisan shops cry uncle, yet these aren’t production pipes wearing an artisan hat. They’re individually made pipes with the engineering, stem work, shaping, grain orientation and finish you’d expect from a serious high-grade maker.
His design language is rooted heavily in the Danish school — clean lines, organic transitions, purposeful curves and an obsessive relationship with the grain — but Sean doesn’t simply imitate Danish masters. His pipes have developed a distinctly Reum personality. Classic enough to look right 50 years from now, but with enough attitude that you can usually spot one across the table.
And he can flat-out sandblast briar. When Sean gets a block that wants to cooperate, the ring grain he pulls out of it can be ridiculous.
But here’s the part I appreciate most: Sean builds pipes to smoke.
Wide-open airflow, properly executed slots, comfortable stems and deliberate weight and balance aren’t afterthoughts. Sean is a pipe smoker building pipes for pipe smokers. Beauty matters. Engineering matters just as much.
His work has been carried by respected retailers in the United States and overseas, his pipes reside in some extremely serious collections, and his reputation among collectors has grown to the point that available pieces have historically had a habit of disappearing almost immediately.
I also get to say something about Sean that I can’t say about most makers we feature here:
He’s my friend.
Sean and I talk pipes all the time, usually from opposite sides of the fence — him as the guy making them and me as the guy restoring, evaluating and selling them. That makes for some damn good conversations, and I’ve developed an enormous amount of respect for both how he approaches the craft and how much he genuinely gives a damn about pipes.
So when Sean offered me a handful of his pipes to retail through Come and Take It Pipe Works, I was pretty damn excited.
These aren’t pipes I chased down on the estate market.
They came from Sean.
And I’m extremely proud to have them here.
If you’ve been waiting to add a serious contemporary American artisan to the rack, Reum Pipes deserves your attention.
Sean isn’t going to be one of the names people know.
He already is.
Come and take it.
Follow my shop for choice pipes and color commentary, uploaded regularly and original pipes hand made by me, uploaded occasionally. I REGULARLY STOCK 100+ ESTATE PIPES SO CHECK OUT MY OTHER AUCTIONS
Keywords – briar smoking tobacco pipe rare vintage antique estate pipe potato
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Measurements available upon request.
My shipping is a little more than some. I use UPS (unless it's going to a PO Box or non contiguous US) because UPS has a 98% success rate versus USPS at 87.5%. I have a dedicated UPS representative who goes above and beyond in the rare case there is a shipping issue. Three-ish dollars is worth the peace of mind in my opinion.
