Part of the pleasure of having too many tobacco pipes is owning pipes from many nations. I just bought my first Dutch pipe after shopping for one for years. I own the usual array -- English, Italian, French, Danish, Irish, Greek. What am I forgetting? But I do really appreciate and enjoy buying pipes from my home place, the U.S., both from my go-to carver who does both briar and Mountain Laurel pipes (and doesn't sell online) and from the various surviving factory pipe makers like Dr. Grabow, Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole, Missouri Meerschaum, Old Dominion. I like U.S. factory pipes both for their down-home sturdiness and their reasonable prices, not to mention their rich history. Do you feel a little tug toward pipes of your home country? I'd miss the international aspect of owning pipes, but I do feel a pull, and feel impelled to lift the fortunes of the not always robust domestic market for domestic pipes. The U.S. pipe industry feels more fragile than those in Italy, France and Denmark, it seems to me.
