Demüa
Danilo Zunino talks about his work with a smile: being a "sawyer" is, he says, "a crazy job"... but that's precisely why it's unique. In Taggia, he and his teacher are among the very few in the world practicing this now extremely rare art, with only a dozen or so globally recognized professionals.
Danilo is one of the youngest and owes everything to Domenico "Mimmo" Romeo, an international figure in the field. Their specialty isn't simply woodworking: they work with briar root, a prized material sourced from various parts of Europe. Their job is to study it, understand it, and cut it with precision to maximize its value.
Danilo's path hasn't been traditional. After years as a bartender, at 38 he decided to change his life and take a chance. Thus began his apprenticeship, almost on a bet. At first, he observes, learns to recognize the woods, then moves on to marking the cuts, until the symbolic moment: the first piece crafted alone, after over a year of practice.
Over time, the briar processing was joined by the creation of handcrafted pipes, completing the entire cycle: from the rough block to the finished object. Each piece is the result of extensive preparation, starting with the seasoning of the wood and culminating in months of careful workmanship.
Today, Danilo works as a sawyer and pipemaker under the Gheppo Pipes brand, and has also launched a second project, Demüa, a Ligurian term that evokes the idea of leisure and creative freedom. Here, he offers pipes with artisanal shapes, starting with an initial industrial rough-hewing and then moving on to a completely manual finishing: files, knives, sandpaper, and constant attention to the wood grain. Each piece is crafted individually, with contrasts between smooth and sandblasted surfaces, and mouthpieces made alongside the pipe.
Demüa also stands out for its limited production, approximately 500 pipes per year, and for its choice to use only select plates, avoiding standard templates. The goal is to offer artisanal quality and high-quality briar at an affordable price, without sacrificing the care and personality of each creation.
For Danilo, this work remains an ongoing challenge: difficult, slow, but capable of transforming a simple piece of wood into something truly special.
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