Anyone Know Whats Up With Norwood Pipe Repair?

[matchstickman]

So I need another new stem for an old pipe (bit a hole in it) and was curious how much it would cost to have a nice Lucite stem made for it. I went to my usual source for repair, which is Norwood Pipe Repair, because they are the cheapest I have found and I like the service I get from them. But when I went to their site to look up how much my repair would be, I come to find that the site is under maintenance, and it says that the shop is now owned by Kenneth Norwood, not Floyd, who I have always sent my pipes to. Why is this cause for concern? For one, I liked talking to Floyd. He was short, honest, blunt, and to the point. Never unfriendly, but all business. Plus, I trusted my pipes with Floyd and always had the strictest confidence. I am assuming that maybe this is all because Floyd is retiring or can no longer do the repair work himself. From the few times I talked to him, he didn't exactly sound like a Spring Chicken. Im curious if anyone knows the details of what happened here. Is Kenneth his son maybe? Has anyone had any repair experience since Floyd has been out of the picture? Im sure that Floyd wouldn't trust the name of his shop to just anyone, Im just curious about Floyds well being more than anything. I hope nothing happened to the guy cause I really liked dealing with him.

 

[ssjones]

Floyd made a post to a number of pipe forums, here as well, a few months ago explaining the transition. Ken has apparently been apprenticing for a long time and was ready to take over the pipe repair business. I'm only heard good things about Ken's work as well, a number of happy customers were from this forum I believe.

 

[kashmir]

Well, I'm certainly glad Floyd is alright. I have complete confidence in Floyd Norwood, and whatever direction he sees his business going is fine by me. I recently had Floyd cut me a series of stems for some Dunhills and Ashtons, made out of Tru-Stone, a type of resin material orders if magnitude harder than traditional Lucite. Tru-Stone has mineral powder for coloring rather than dye based coloring like in Lucite. I had several pipe repairmen tell me either they don't carve stems from blanks period, or if they did, they wouldn't do it with Tru-Stone, for fear of dulling their blades. Not Floyd! He cheerfully took on the job at reasonable cost with less than one week turn-over time. Not only was the final product to die for, the record time he did it in was phenomenal. I mean FedEx and Amazon could learn a thing or two from Floyd. So if Floyd sees fit to put his business Norwood Pipe Repair in the hands of his protoge, I for one wholly support his decision. And, if you're reading this Floyd, know that your stem work on such demanding material as Tru-Stone, has set the bar mighty high indeed for any future piperepairmen to follow in your footsteps. God bless.

 

[allan]

Whoa, Kash
That's quite a bold stem. Good for you.
Is this 'tru stone' a soft or hard material, compared to vulcanite or lucite?
Allan

 

[kashmir]

Allan - There are different grades of Tru-Stone, some as hard as porcelain, others as soft as Lucite. Exoticblanks dot com provides the details.

 

[numbersix]

Interesting. I just emailed Norwoods about getting a stem on my Dunhill. The email address was from "ken" but Floyd was the one who emailed me back and patiently answered all of my questions.
Maybe he can't quite let go? :: Either way, it's great to hear the positive words about Norwoods - gives me confidence.