Danish School?

[georged]

Sas, you are right they are both Rads, great eye. I am amazed at how you so easily explain why one thing is good and another not so good. I have never looked at a pipe with that kind of detail. My eye sees a couple of nice looking pipes that I figure should smoke great because of who made them.

The fun is only beginning.
The brain-study folks have known for a long time that humans can't see things until they're pointed out and named. Sounds weird, but is literally true. Mother Nature then doubles down... after you HAVE seen and neurologically cataloged the whatever-it-is, you always will from that point on. You can never "un-see" it.
It's much of the reason most pipe collectors buy everything they can afford early on, then become increasingly particular and go through "purge" periods in subsequent years. What once looked good disappoints after a while.
It happens on the other side of the fence as well. Any significantly accomplished carver can tell you all about it. :lol: (I know several who buy up their OWN early pieces when possible to "erase" them from the public record)

 

[dmcmtk]

Todd, as long as you don't start eating puppies! :D

 

[sasquatch]

Sure, would love to have about 100 pipes back for immediate disposal, whaddya do?
Check out this lovat I made last year - dead plain, no adornment, and just ... made it, didn't look at other pictures, just made a pipe I thought looked "right".

But just compare the ... general feel... to Rad's, and it's... basically the same proportions etc, just distilled simpler yet.
Here's another "American" pipe, and strangely, you can compare it directly to Rad's black lovat, even though it's a bent.

Black blast, relieved at the rim with an eye-catching (and practical) smooth bevel. We need another point of visual balance, so that brass ring between the black/black works pretty well. And the lines are smooooth. And the proportions just... just... a little chubbier than ye olde Englande pipe. But not as flubbery as a Castello. Heck no. So as much as that's an amalgam of Danish, English, and Italian ideas.... well, yeah, that's the American School.

 

[laniromee]

I just wanted to weigh in on the American School debate:

Smokingpipes.com has a video on Alan Brothers pipes in which Jeff Gracick kinda suggests that the "American School" may be defined with a particular type of aesthetics: muscular, stout, forward heavy and compact. Maybe there's something to it? I believe that description fits a lot of american pipemakers body of work and also american made factory pipes .
Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTBB6RlGAdw

 

[Chasing Embers]

Though being a big Dunhill collector himself, I would say that Bruce was heavily inspired by Danish design.

 

[dmcmtk]

A good article about American artisan pipemaking. Like all the different aesthetics, I'd say the "American School" has evolved. We see the early influences in the 1960's ~ '70's of several European styles, and some very creative pipemakers/designers; Ed Burak, Andrew Marks, Eliott Nachwalter, Jack Weinberger, Mike Butera etc.
Go West
https://pipedia.org/wiki/Go_West

 

[bnichols23]

Thanks for all the incredible in-depth, Sas'! On the BW stuff, yeah, I'm almost dead certain of it. BW put out so many pipes during that timeframe that for them to all be crafted by Holm he'd have had to have been at least 100 clones of himself! I'd never commit heresy & say they were [gasp!] "machine made," but I'd put real money on there having been at least 15-20 master forms that were used as models by the subordinate carvers.
Over the years, first behind the counter & then from the user side, I saw so many that with dang nearly identical elements (high frontal swoop with a deep vee in the middle, etc.) that I can't think it was any other way. There being only so many creative ways you can put those together, no surprise that so many would be genetic duplicates!
B

 

[sablebrush52]

My personal tastes with regard to American carvers tends to favor those with a very personal style. So I have pipes like these:
Paul Tatum:

Trever Talbert:

Lee Von Erck:

Piersel:

Cannoy:

That don't adhere to any orthodoxy except smoking well.
Even my one remaining Holm:

is crazy strange.
This stands in stark contrast to the English pipes I have that are largely classical and traditional.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Holm he'd have had to have been at least 100 clones of himself!

Holm had many talented carvers working under him in his workshop. Among them was his foreman of operations, Poul Winslow.

 

[tobefrank]

Thanks for posting the photos for me, dmcmtk. I guess I haven’t quite worked out the ins and outs of posting photos on this forum.
Thanks also for the comments on the pipes, sasquatch. I had a feeling that there was some Danish influence in the Bruce Weaver as well.
The reason I love the Bruce Weaver is that the design looks very minimalistic and precise to me. Probably because the bowl is angled at 90 degrees to the shank as you pointed out, and the shank is dead straight. But then it’s got this sandblast that puts a more organic feel to it, at least to my eye.
I think one thing that is quite distinctive for the ‘American school’ is that it has taken the sandblasted finish to another level, compared to any of the other schools of pipe making.
You are also correct about the internal engineering being much better in American pipes compared to the Danish pipes I own. A lot has to do with the Danish pipes mostly being designed for 9mm filters. I smoke the Stanwell 124 with quite an open adapter, which luckily doesn’t restrict the draw too much.

 

[bnichols23]

100 clones of himself!
Holm had many talented carvers working under him in his workshop. Among them was his foreman of operations, Poul Winslow.

Yup, that he did, during the sadly way too short time he was able to be in the business, but for the essentially mass production of BWs at least *some* standardization had to have been in place, otherwise there wouldna been so many almost identical ones in all the display cases BITD. His having the soon-to-be-famous Poul as shop boss was in fact THE main reason I'd been casting about for one of his for my collection. The one I got from SPC's a gorgeous but not *too* crazy floral in the properly wild PH tradition.

B

 

[danish]

You are also correct about the internal engineering being much better in American pipes compared to the Danish pipes I own. A lot has to do with the Danish pipes mostly being designed for 9mm filters. I smoke the Stanwell 124 with quite an open adapter, which luckily doesn’t restrict the draw too much.

tobefrank, I think big 9mm filter pipes from Denmark mostly made for mainly the German market, not part of domestic Danish design, only for export, since only few Danes used filters or bought bigger pipes.

 

[mau1]

Bill, that's some nice pipe!

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

Who brought the bamboo stem into vogue?

 

[sasquatch]

Dunhill's "Whangee" is the first "modern" version I think, but I'll bet bamboo was smoked through before that, somewhere...

 

[Chasing Embers]

The one I got from SPC's a gorgeous but not *too* crazy floral in the properly wild PH tradition.

Think my Hallmark's too crazy? :mrgreen: I actually appears on Holm's Pipedia page, and still remains unsmoked.

 

[mso489]

This thread will bear re-reading. I'm not sure Forums has ever delved quite this deeply into pipe design.

 

[workman]

Ha! MSO, I was thinking the same. History is being written here. This is the most interesting thread in a long time.

 

[bnichols23]

Thanks, mau! Yeah, it's really gorgeous. Smokes like an absolute dream too. I'd been wanting a Winslow for years. It's a true gem.
Nah, Duane, not too far out there for me, but then again I *am* "Dr. Swoop" when it comes to that style. Now, that 4-bowl of Preben's? Yeah, *that's* too far. Almost. :mrgreen:
Bill

 

[LaraGiles]

Looks great