@Brad, Harris and Roth - Many thanks, guys, but I do give their mom all the credit. She taught them early on that presents should be desired and to go to the extra effort to uncover what will make somebody truly happy.
Now, Photoman, the Ben Wade story is compelling to say the least and that poor brand is a classic example of what happened to so many of the great and now almost forgotten names in British pipemaking history. Here's a Pipedia entry that plumbs the details: http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Ben_Wade
I got interested in the Danish Ben Wade burners for two reasons. I love Scandinavian pipes and I've had a mad man-crush on Preben Holm for years. He was one of the most gifted pipemakers and his life ended way too soon after his wife and family left him. The guy punched out in a bottle at the age of 42 in 1989.
A hand carved Preben Holm will probably always be a long way outside my budget but these two burners will help straighten out the trail. Holm obtained the Ben Wade name in the early 70's and rode the wave of Northern European pipe design for well over a decade. I'm sure he never laid hands on these pipes but he employed some of the greatest Scandinavian carvers known today and he oversaw their production.
Towards the end, as his health and production slipped, quality control went the same direction. So, there's a real good chance neither one of these pipes will smoke for shit but, in a weird way, that'll be okay. I'll turn them into good looking paperweights and just remember the time when his work used to set the world on fire.
I hope that wasn't too much information, pard. Writing in sound bites has never been something that appealed to me.
Fnord
