We revisited La Pipe Du Nord in Paris and unfortunately, Pierrre Voisin the pipe maker wasn't in, but we met his lovely wife- Fortunately, Greta's Italian was enough to get us a lengthy tour of the shop. One thing that strikes you is that this is a 5th generation shop founded in 1867. You'll see wood handled tools that bear the polish from hundreds of hours work over a century time span…along with some new tools acquired in the past few years.
The great thing about several of the Italian and French makers I've visited is the sense of history you find- what you typically don't find in many cases is innovative designs that you'll see with the Danish and American makers- I think there's a tendency when you learned your craft at your father's knee to stay with the traditional designs that have been produced over time. There's not a lot of fussiness or pretense at an artisan pipe- they make traditional designs that are consistent and made to smoke.
In the US, there's a tendency to follow the lead of some of the top pipe makers when guys make tooling decisions- you'll see a lot of PM12x36 lathes and Variable speed drives for shaping- In this shop, it was a combination of old equipment and fairly cheap new equipment used with the skill developed over a lifetime- goes to prove- it ain't the tool, it's the maker…
Here's a link- http://www.pipe-du-nord.com/p/426/presentation.php
Here are a few pics of the shop…
The great thing about several of the Italian and French makers I've visited is the sense of history you find- what you typically don't find in many cases is innovative designs that you'll see with the Danish and American makers- I think there's a tendency when you learned your craft at your father's knee to stay with the traditional designs that have been produced over time. There's not a lot of fussiness or pretense at an artisan pipe- they make traditional designs that are consistent and made to smoke.
In the US, there's a tendency to follow the lead of some of the top pipe makers when guys make tooling decisions- you'll see a lot of PM12x36 lathes and Variable speed drives for shaping- In this shop, it was a combination of old equipment and fairly cheap new equipment used with the skill developed over a lifetime- goes to prove- it ain't the tool, it's the maker…
Here's a link- http://www.pipe-du-nord.com/p/426/presentation.php
Here are a few pics of the shop…
