I have been looking into freehand pipes and really like the looks of many of them, but with their great looks comes great cost... So does anyone know of any freehand pipes for under 100$?
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Pipes Magazine » General Pipe Smoking Discussion
Freehand Pipes?
(34 posts)-
Posted 4 months ago #
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Nording, lots of them on ebay.
There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods.
To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it.Posted 4 months ago # -
Are Ben Wade Pipes any good? I see a lot of them for under 50$!
Posted 4 months ago # -
You should consider getting one custom made ... there's a few excellent pipe makers here.
"Under all speech that is good for anything, there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time."
Thomas CarlylePosted 4 months ago # -
freehand usually = handmade = more labor costs = more expensive pipe
Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close
Rudyard KiplingPosted 4 months ago # -
dr Grabow freehand pipes are $30.00
Now i gotta larn how to reed and rite goodPosted 4 months ago # -
There's a lot of confusion about free hand pipes. A Grabow of course can't be a free hand for 30$ or not?
Probably the confusion is between free shape and free hand.Also Nording that is one major brand nowadays cant produce real free hand if not in special series for over 300-400$.
Well pipes can be :
1) machined (the most part)
2)Hand made (that means machine turned and hand finished)
3)Free hand (totally made by hand with no machines)
About free hand we could also say that not all pipes signed free hand are real free hand.James Upshall to my opinion are machined at first step.
Anyway nobody can think to buy a full hand made for 100$ or less,must explain why? well when you get your wage guess the aswer is clear
Maurizioturn on,tune in,drop outPosted 4 months ago # -
In my opinion Ben Wade pipes are well worth that price.
Life's most valuable treasure is..LovePosted 4 months ago # -
I didn't think there was any confusion on what a freehand pipe was. Pretty easy to see what is and what isn't. But just so there is no confusion
Smokingpipes.com's definition of a "Freehand" pipe
Freehand
Used to refer to any pipe shape that is outside of the 'normal', meaning named, styles of pipe making. These were popularized by Danish carvers in the first half of the twentieth century, but now every region of pipemaking has at least one producer of freehand shapes, and many traditional carvers occasionally create a freehand or two.From Pipedia
And Dr. Grabow makes a sexy freehand for the price if I do say so myself.
"I was born to lose. So I'll die to win." -Breaking BenjaminPosted 4 months ago # -
Spartan;
thank you for ur back up mate i appreciate it. I soon aint gonna post any more comments. One member here, not to mention names, disputes a large percentage of them. Almost like i have a target on my back
Posted 4 months ago # -
i like it alot frenchy!!
Posted 4 months ago # -
That's a nice pipe, but it will go for closer to $120, rather than the $36 it's now at.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Maybe. It isn't wearing an original stem and it looks to have been either aggressively buffed or it has a weak stamp. Both may or may not hurt the sale price...its ebay, afterall.
The Martinique line isn't quite as popular as some of the others, which may or may not affect the final price.
It does have a Friday night auction ending, which always seems to make prices a bit higher. At least when I am trying to win an auction it seems this way. Fridays and weekends seem to price out higher auctions than day time or mid-week auctions, but I haven't scientifically tested this theory.
I say bid what you're comfortable with and let's see what happens.
Ben Wades are 75% of my little collection. My favorite pipes!
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." - Claire WolfePosted 4 months ago # -
Frencchy, I have a Ben Wade Martinique, and it is a wonderful smoker. I think you'd be happy with it for sure!
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
Posted 4 months ago # -
I think I am going to go with a Nording.... But I love the Ben Wades they just go for too much on ebay.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I like Nording myself. But i am fond of the Graybow I think i will order one.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Nsfisher, I, for one, enjoy your comments. I'm sure others do too.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I have two freehand pipes in my collection and they have become a bit of a prized possession to me.
First is my Celius. It is one of my restorations and is a damn fine smoking pipe. IF you can get your hands on one, I highly recommend them. Only problem is that they are suddenly highly collectible and go for a pretty high price. You wouldn't believe how much I snagged this one for.
The second one is a 1948 Stanwell. I got this one from Portascat (thanks man, it's an awesome pipe!)and started the restoration. He was a mess, but turned out to be a beauty. One of my only faults in this restoration was accidentally sanding the nomenclature down too far to be able to read, but the patent number that was on it was from 1948. I did a staining job as well as fitting a replacement acrylic stem to it.
Southerners don't talk slow because they're dumb, we do it because there's really no rush.Posted 4 months ago # -
dam those r awsome bootle, sweet pipes for sure
Posted 4 months ago # -
I don't think that a machined pipe could be defined free hand, maybe free shape if the shape is not ordinary.Otherwise how we could define a fully hand made pipe? That's my opinion of course and don't think that expose a diffeent opinion could be offensive or annoying .If so sorry i'm in a wrong place
MaurizioPosted 4 months ago # -
To me, and I have been doing this for 40 years, freehand is a shape, not a construction method. A "handmade" pipe should bring a higher price but with that said, the market will bear what it will. Pipes are art, that you use. You can purchase a very good looking freehand pipe, at a price that won't cost you a car payment, and be happy. I knew what you meant nsfisher in your first post.
@hnryclay: you can't go wrong with a Nording, I have 3 with 2 more coming.
Bootleg, dude, that Celius is awesome! I covet that pipe.
EDIT: @profpar: nice link, I am going to get the checkbook.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I don't care for the look of most freehand pipes. But that's just me. I remember back in the 70's when it seemed like everybody was trying to out do one another with weird shapes. A lot of them looked ridiculous, just to be different I think.
I'm sure a lot of the time it was just so the carver could use a flawed block of brair, and come away with a "masterpiece freehand".
No. I was glad to see some normality return to the pipe making community.Posted 4 months ago # -
I guess freehand is an old term that is still just being used out of habit. When I started working in the business back in the late '70's, freehand was the terminology used for any pipe that didn't adhere to a standard shape, and I guess it still is for the most part(at least here in the US) as can be seen on the major e-tailers sites for pipes by Nording for instance. I know for a fact that these pipes that run $75-$100 aren't completely hand made, but the term freehand is still used. I thing freestyle, or freeshape might be a more accurate description of the pipe, but it seems old habits, or in this case nomenclature dies hard. Just my $.02.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Well i understand that probably there's a difference between Europe and Usa.The confusion is probably due to that.The best example is the James Upshall production for the most part rigorously of English style but the printing over the shank says " FH James Upshall + shape number" .The Uphall pipes could be made entirely by hand (?) the FH (free hand) means hand without help of any machine..........so Free ,also in the english standard shapes.
So we could say it's only a definition not important at all.When i buy a pipe for 30 $ new i can define it free shape because i'm sure no hand worked as free on that pipe.But if in Usa you prefer to call that pipe freehand , well nothing change at all.Surely a 30$ pipe it is worth what it costs freehand or freeshape
MaurizioPosted 4 months ago # -
mlaug was right: the Ben Wade in the ebay auction was in fair condition at best; so his apparaisal was closer to the mark than mine (the pipe sold at 60-something dollars).
Posted 4 months ago # -
I have a Preben Holm and a Ben Wade both are excellent smokers. Both I got for under $100.00 on ebay.
"Pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment of human affairs" - A.E.Posted 4 months ago # -
I bought my freehands in the 80's: a Nording,
a Ben Wade,
a Jobey
and an Edwards.
All are excellent smoking pipes, but big and heavy. None were more than $45.00 back then. I also have an oddball, a Rungstead Seafarer, again its a nice pipe, but really big. Of all these, I like the Nording best.Posted 4 months ago # -
OK what I have learned from this is that "freehand" refers only to a non-conventional shape, therefore no 2 will ever be identical be the characteristics of the original lump of briar are retained.
I think the term for a completely hand-made, no machinery used pipe should be Hand-Made or Hand-carved, period!
The current status quo is misleading for new players.
Stats: Female "Proud Pretty Pipe" Smoker, lover of all things aromatic, especially mens' armpits!
Technophobic fool who can't work out how to invite friends, so if you want to be mates with moi, you'll need to do the legwork involved, but only if you have a great SOH and don't dump on others!Posted 4 months ago # -
frennchy11 - Did you, by chance, win this pipe?
Posted 4 months ago # -
Unfortunately no. I wasnt able to place a bid. it only went for around 60$ though!
Posted 4 months ago # -
Well, it won't be the last one for sale. Good luck with the hunt! I hope you get a nice one.
Posted 4 months ago # -
A lot of those turn up on ebay. I rather like the look of freehand pipes but I dislike the large bowls due to the problem of having screwed up hands and holding them can be less than comfortable for me. One other thing is in the 70's the stump on a stick style was popular. They just lacked class in my opinion. Sort of soured me on freehands.
If at first you don't succeed you are running about average.Posted 4 months ago #
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