I am now the proud owner of TWO Nørding pipes. Since I am unable (unwilling at least) to smoke one of them, I looked for a replacement. Turns out that the bent apple shape is one of Nørding's more uncommon shapes, and flush fit stems are more uncommon still. This particular pipe was made (probably) in the early 90's, and is part of the 'Scandinavian Originals' line of pipes, also uncommon. It's a grade 2 pipe, but a close enough design for me. I'm not sure I could come any closer. Also, I did find a fellow who owned another World Record Pipe. His is stamped with the typical 'Nørding' stamp and graded 2, which surprised me, as I thought that Erik Nørding made all these. This one is just a factory made pipe, from what I can tell, and not made by Erik personally.
Congrats on finding a pipe close to your other one that you can smoke guilt free. Has the other guy with a Nording World Record pipe smoked his?
While smoking a couple of turkey breasts, I smoked a bowl of Orlik Mellow Mixture in a $35 basket pipe I picked up at The Briary a few years back. You can see a couple of imperfections at the top of the bowl, and the draft hole, while right at the bottom, is slightly off center. Turned out to be a fine pipe, and in fact I won a slow smoking contest one year at The Briary’s annual pipe show with it. I won an Erik Stokkebye 4th Generation pipe with a $35 pipe! Pictured with my Corona lighter, and a tamp given to me by Erik Stokkebye.
Don't know. Don't care. He picked it up as part of a large estate collection (700 pipes) of mostly rare and limited edition pipes (Mostly Danish factory made pipes from Stanwell, Nørding, Preben Holm, W.Ø. Larson, etc.). From the color, I just assumed it had been smoked. Edit: Nice looking pipe, and great story!
Wow, bet that guy got some great pipes out of that estate buy. I was at a Briary pipe show a few years back, and after milling around, talking with some folks I knew, I pulled out one of my pipes and walked over to Erik Stokkebye to try one of his tobacco samples he had out. As I started to light up I realized I didn’t bring a tamp, and casually remarked I would have to buy a nail tamp. Erik Stokkebye said hold on, dug around in his personal pipe bag, and pulled out a couple of tamps and offered one to me to keep. Not an expensive item at all, but a nice gesture and typical of most people I have met in the pipe and cigar world.
While paying a little more for pipes generally gets you a better pipe, if you’re careful and know what to look for, you can find some real gems in counter top and basket pipes. I look for the draft hole at the bottom of the bowl, generally a straight pipe (easier to properly drill the draft hole), no cracks in the bowl, a little thicker bowl if possible, not too heavy, and not too many obvious large putty fills. A couple of putty fills aren’t necessarily deal killers. Then it gets into esthetics. Some basket pipes are just plain ugly or don’t feel right in the hand, but those are really subjective things. If you’re just looking for a good cool smoking pipe, there are bargains out there as evidenced by the basket pipe I won the contest with.
New Pipe Day. The mouth hang on this pipe is really nice. Digging it. Sir Walter Raleigh to weed out any ghosts. Stem doesn't pass a pipe cleaner, but I didn't expect it to, given the sharp curvature.
Given the thickness of the bowl shape and combined with the sandblast finish, I’m betting that pipe has great heat dissipation and smokes really cool. Looks great!
I only own two basket pipes. Both are stamped "Made in London, England." Let's look at the Canadian first. This pipe has good shaping, great grain, and 3 fills, two of them quite large. Fills on old pipes generally take one of two forms. Either they are a pinkish putty or a black glassy epoxy fill. This happens be to be the latter. Aside from the fills, this is a good pipe, probably a group 4 size. It has a 45° chamfer on the tenon, which is a Dunhill/Parker characteristic, but they weren't the only ones doing that. Let's look at the Lumberman. This pipe has great grain, tight patterns and good shaping. It's likely Charatan made. Charatan had five levels of pipe "seconds" starting with Ben Wade pipes as true seconds, and going all the way down to Belvedere pipes, which were four or five grades below the "Charatan" pipe grades. This pipe wasn't good enough for that. It displays cracks around the birdseye burl at the toe of the pipe. This can be caused by overheating the chamber while smoking, but in this case, appears to be natural defects in the briar burl block the pipe was shaped from. I'm surprised this ended up being a basket pipe. This is a group 5 Lumberman, borderline 'giant' or 'OD' size. Today, it would be sandblasted and put on the market with a $200-300 price tag, and no one would know about the cracks. This would probably be one of those pipes that would be on the 'avoid' list if you spotted it in a basket. However, the cracks are small, and the pipe is thick walled. These two pipes were purchased with a Whitehall Grand National and a Kaywoodie Red Root for a sum total of $20 shipped, or $5 per pipe. They are both excellent smokers.
It's been a vexing pipe so far. During my usual new 'vintage' pipe clean-up, I ran hot water down the stem and inadvertently crushed the airway or blocked it with tar, I'm not sure which. I had to go back and straighten the stem, then ream it to re-open the airway, then put a pipe cleaner down the stem's airway to keep it from collapsing when I bent it back. I didn't bend it fully back to where it was. I might later, I haven't decided yet. It now passes a pipe cleaner through the stem without effort. Oddly enough, during the stem straightening and rebending, the stem turned ever so slightly greenish in a few spots. I thought the stem was lucite. It's apparently a low-sulphur ebonite or other form of high grade vulcanite. Nørding was an early adopter of lucite stems, which means this pipe is likely older than I thought, and may be from the 1970's or 80's, not the early 90's that I originally assumed. The faintest outline of a block 'N' is visible on the stem. I don't know if this is earlier or later than the script 'N' stem logo used on 90's pipes. If the world record pipe is a cross between an egg and apple shape, this one is cross between an apple and a pot shape, at least in comparison. It's quite obvious which is the more elegant pipe design. Also the bowl is half the depth of the top pipe. I smoked my first bowl prior to clean up, and it smoked well, albeit with a somewhat restricted airflow, and I had to relight it several times. I haven't smoked it since I opened the airway, but I expect it to smoke even better now.
Shout out for this YouTube channel: https://m.youtube.com/@highgradepiperepairrestora3182 He goes by the tag 'LatakiaLover,' on the pipe maker forums, and watching his videos is like taking a masterclass on pipe design. He has at least one nugget of gold advice per video. I recommend starting with his two playlists on "correcting a pipe's manufacturing errors."
You really got a deal on those pipes! I should watch e-bay for pipes I like. My son has picked up two Cavicchi pipes, each one for something under $100, don’t remember the specific amounts. Although I only have 4 of them, I really like the Canadian family of pipes. I believe the longer wood shank contributes to a cooler smoke. I’ll try to get a pic posted of them tomorrow.
I believe you’re correct, the Lumberman would today be sandblasted/rusticated and sold for a higher price. I have a pipe hand made by Skip Elliot that is a perfect example. He had a piece of briar that had a couple of issues, so he rusticated it and I really like it. I prefer the feel of rusticated or sandblasted pipe, and they do dissipate heat better due to greater surface area.
Dug up the original seller's pictures. I bought them to try out different bowl sizes, and this was a nice selection. Really don't care for billiard pipes, but that wasn't the point. There are deals to be had, provided a person isn't terribly picky. The rusticated Kaywoodie (third from left) is a 'normal' sized pipe. I didn't realize how big the two other pipes actually were. I haven't noticed that the Canadian or Lumberman smoke any cooler than my other pipes, but they don't get used very frequently.
