About Tom Eltang

Text by smokingpipes.com

Tom Eltang was introduced to Anne Julie at the age of 16 and showed her some of the pipes he made, so an apprenticeship was set up (this was back in 1974). 
After working with her for 3 years, he worked for Pipe Dan doing repairs and some pipes, and later for Stanwell. 
Since 1980, Tom has been making pips under his own name in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Possibly best-known for his exquisite contrast staining on smooth pipes, Tom is also known to most pipe makers as ‘the man’. 
He is considered by many to be the most talented and prolific pipe maker in the world, producing 500+ high-grade Eltang pipes a year - with the “M” being his highest grade.
And around the same number of his 2. brand, the Sara Eltang pipes, named after one of his daughters, 

His hand-eye coordination is so strong, that he is a human machine for pipe making, producing mostly smooth, sandblasted, and signature rusticated pipes. 
Tom’s accents are often bamboo, boxwood, and horn. 
His stems are hand cut from solid vulcanite rods and his tenons are turned from the same stock. 

On the Sara Eltang line, Tom uses acrylic mouthpieces with an additional composite tenon.