Starting out at the age of 17 under his father's guidance, Peter Heeschen made pipes on a more casual basis off and on until the age of 53 when, having lost his job due to redundancy, he needed a new source of income. While the loss of his income may have been unfortunate, his timing certainly wasn't, as his high quality of work immediately found an audience in a US market that was seeing increased demand for Danish high grade pipes.

Peter made only sandblasted or smooth pipes that were graded either B, A, or S, the last being his highest grade. Heeschen's squat Bulldogs, Eggs, Cherrywoods, and P-shape all became supreme examples of a carver's ability to make, replicate, and evolve signature shapes. His stems were each hand cut from ebonite rod, though he did use some very nice tortoiseshell acrylics from time to time, and often accented his stems with rosewood, tulipwood, black palm, or boxwood. Peter was one of the first carvers to bring very delicate black bamboo to the scene, and also worked the natural yellow (pencil thin) bamboo or silver bands into the designs of many of his signature shapes.
He passed away unexpectedly during the night of November 28th in 2015, following a full day spent with his family and friends.