Artisan Showcase #1 –– Martin Cermak

TPLHistory

Martin Cermak creates some of the most distinctive and picturesque pipes you’re likely to find anywhere in the world. However, when he first started out in the pipe-making business, the process didn’t go nearly as smoothly as it does today. “When I first started making pipes, it took me two days to make a horrible pipe,” he said. 

Cermak, 30, is an almost completely self-taught pipe maker. He says that he developed his skills from scratch and that he had to learn from his mistakes to sharpen his process. Now after many years in the trade, he’s produced thousands of pipes –– though he still concentrates on handmade pipes, of which he made nearly a hundred custom models in 2021. 

As a young man just graduated from college, Cermak began to dabble with restoring old pipes and reselling them. He was already a pipe smoker, and he quickly decided to go into business making pipes. (He says one day he simply thought, I can make pipes myself.) He sold his car, rented a place for his workshop, and started to make pipes on his own. Cermak has a passion for handmade pipes, and it’s his goal to bring the pipemaker’s personal touch to pipes that are still affordable for most people. 

In his personal life, he enjoys smoking whatever is currently available in his workshop –– often out of cracked and damaged pipes. His go-to blend (his “workshop blend”) is composed of mostly Virginia tobacco with just a touch of Latakia. He lives in Prague, Czech Republic. 

You can check out examples of Cermak’s work and find custom pipes available for sale on his website. https://www.instagram.com/cermakpipes/