Guess the grade of these pipes...

[PLANofMAN]

Snagged this off the 'bay a day ago. Didn't show the stem because I didn't want bias to sway anyone's choice. Please guess the grade of these two pipes based on the grain and sandblast. Pipes are Nørdings, both early '90's era. Grading was 1-4 at that time for sandblasts, with 1 being the 'highest grade.' One of these pipes is ungraded, and one carries an '00' grade. Guess which one is which. Top pipe is in uncleaned state.

The previous owner was a Tobacco Institute Regional Vice-president (I have provenance). Appears to use the same rare(ish) stummel shape as the Nørding Guinness World Pipe series, and the 2007 Hunting Pipe (elk). Shape 42, I think?

I have two others to compare it to, a grade 2 sandblast volcano/tomato, and a rare unsmoked Guinness World Record Pipe.

I've attempted to replicate the same bad angles and same poor lighting as the above pictures with that pipe (remember, it's unsmoked, so it's naturally going to look better). Both pipes appear to share the same type of grain orientation, meant to showcase birdseye.


And now for the grand reveal...

The top pipe.

Anyone ever seen a double aught (00) stamp on a Nørding? (Right under what appears to be a sandpit, too).
...and no, Nørding has never used an 08 stamp on any of his pipes, to the best of my knowledge.

And the bottom pipe. Which has, in my opinion, one of the better sandblasts I've seen in the (shallow) European style.

Thoughts? ...and yeah, I know the top pipe appears to have a shorter bowl.

Is the stamping a reflection of the quality of the briar, or of the prestige of the person who owned the pipe? Is my perception of grade thrown off by the bottom pipe?

 

[Briar Lee]

Back to Bug Tussle

Let’s call him Bob.

Bob was a long haired dope smoker but—

1. He came from the State of California so he wasn’t one of us—-such vices are expected from Californians

2. Bob had a Sydney Sweeney grade smoking hot good looking sister. She loved Bob.

3. Bob was a good soul and smart and witty and funny and a boon companion. He was in wonder and thrall with Humansville. It was contagious. Besides, he always had beer money.

One day Johnny and Bob and me were patrolling gravel roads in search of adventure when Bob began wondering if we knew of any hillbillies that raised marijuana.

Johnny winked at me and asked

How much are you willing to pay?

Bob said whatever it’s worth for good weed.

Johnny said Van, can we trust Bob?

I said I’m sure Bob is righteous.

Johnny said, Van and me have a growing operation. We have more weed than you can dream of.

But what we lack is a grader.

We will give you weed, if you’ll grade the bales we have put up.

Bob then assured us he could grade all grades of weed.

We took Bob to my big red barn that had over 2,000 bales of alfalfa and led Bob up to the first cutting and turned over a few bales and laid them out, then to the second cutting and laid those out, and Bob went to grading weed.

Bob pronounced all our hay the best marijuana he’d ever smoked.

He got so high he nearly passed out. He got the munchies. We had a hard time, a really hard time, convincing him he’d been pranked.

The funniest part was Bob was convinced we had over 2,000 bales of weed, and were going to be rich as kings


I think about Bob whenever I catch the scent of alfalfa burning out somewhere, there’s a bunch of kids like we were a half century ago. The worst part about the war on drugs was that it made all the Bobs buy their vice from outright, stone cold, criminals.

Don’t you know that pipe expert was mighty proud of his OO Nording?.

 

[PLANofMAN]

Back to Bug Tussle

Let’s call him Bob.

Bob was a long haired dope smoker but—

1. He came from the State of California so he wasn’t one of us—-such vices are expected from Californians

2. Bob had a Sydney Sweeney grade smoking hot good looking sister. She loved Bob.

3. Bob was a good soul and smart and witty and funny and a boon companion. He was in wonder and thrall with Humansville. It was contagious. Besides, he always had beer money.

One day Johnny and Bob and me were patrolling gravel roads in search of adventure when Bob began wondering if we knew of any hillbillies that raised marijuana.

Johnny winked at me and asked

How much are you willing to pay?

Bob said whatever it’s worth for good weed.

Johnny said Van, can we trust Bob?

I said I’m sure Bob is righteous.

Johnny said, Van and me have a growing operation. We have more weed than you can dream of.

But what we lack is a grader.

We will give you weed, if you’ll grade the bales we have put up.

Bob then assured us he could grade all grades of weed.

We took Bob to my big red barn that had over 2,000 bales of alfalfa and led Bob up to the first cutting and turned over a few bales and laid them out, then to the second cutting and laid those out, and Bob went to grading weed.

Bob pronounced all our hay the best marijuana he’d ever smoked.

He got so high he nearly passed out. He got the munchies. We had a hard time, a really hard time, convincing him he’d been pranked.

The funniest part was Bob was convinced we had over 2,000 bales of weed, and were going to be rich as kings


I think about Bob whenever I catch the scent of alfalfa burning out somewhere, there’s a bunch of kids like we were a half century ago. The worst part about the war on drugs was that it made all the Bobs buy their vice from outright, stone cold, criminals.

Don’t you know that pipe expert was mighty proud of his OO Nording?.

I think they are both mighty fine pipes for the price I paid for them. The top one was $27+shipping, and the bottom one was $26+shipping, and I don't consider myself a pipe expert, by any stretch of the imagination. Just a smoker fascinated by things he can't explain, like an unstamped Nørding in a fancy box, and an 00 graded pipe that looked like the other pipe. (Bought it so I could smoke the other, vicariously, through it).

Besides, if a pipe looks like a testicle, a fellow ought to own a pair of them, don'tcha think?

Obviously the bottom pipe is the superior pipe. I suppose I could always ask Erik if there was malice aforethought involved when he stamped that double aught pipe. To be fair, the shape IS uncommon for Nørding, and flush fit stems are uncommon from him as well, and warrant a second look.

The Tobacco Institute lobby was very much what people today would consider an "evil" group of people, but, in their time, were hugely influential in the realm of tobacco.

That all being said, I know there ARE people here who can eyeball a pipe and know if they are looking at a pipe made from an old briar or a young one, and make educated guesses regarding briar quality based on what they see. I thought this would be an interesting example, since both pipes shared the same type of orientation of the grain, (albeit on opposite sides of the pipe), shape, and sandblast.

Not every pipe can be a five star Lee, right?

 

[Briar Lee]

My only five star Lee (2nd Gen 5 point) cannot in any way compare with my latest Muxaing I got today.



But when I hold my Five Star Lee up to the light just right, I can count the lines of centuries old briar, as fine as angel hair.

Some of my most spectacular grained pipes are $5 Grabow Golden Duke Adjustomatics.

 

[Sobrbiker]

Besides, if a pipe looks like a testicle, a fellow ought to own a pair of them, don'tcha think?

I think I just shot milk out of my nose, and I’m not even drinking milk

 

[Searock Fan]

As soon as I saw "Norway" I knew I would not want it.

 

[Sig]

I think I just shot milk out of my nose, and I’m not even drinking milk

You're gonna want to see a doctor about that.

 

[Waning Embers]

Honestly without seeing the numbers or the nomenclature I would've assumed they were seconds or basket pipes.

 

[Dshift]

I

 

[Sig]

I

Wow!! Do you really think so?
That's amazing!

 

[Dshift]

Wow!! Do you really think so?
That's amazing!

Sorry couldn’t delete a reply I left so that my next best option

 

[Sig]

Sorry couldn’t delete a reply I left so that my next best option

Well it was a well written reply to the query. Well thought out and put to words like a poet!!

 

[PLANofMAN]

Honestly without seeing the numbers or the nomenclature I would've assumed they were seconds or basket pipes.

I

Maybe better lighting and perspective would help? The eBay seller of the first pipe doesn't photograph pipes like it's a hobby...

 

[TheIronMonkey]

It seems like what you described as looking like a sand pit could easily be small nicks or gouges from handling in the years since the pipe was graded; it seems unlikely a pipe would get a high grade with a flaw like a sand pit, but you never know.

 

[PLANofMAN]

It seems like what you described as looking like a sand pit could easily be small nicks or gouges from handling in the years since the pipe was graded; it seems unlikely a pipe would get a high grade with a flaw like a sand pit, but you never know.

I'll have to wait until the pipe is in hand and cleaned to make that call, but my initial impression was that the grade was due to the personage, not the pipe.

...but I really don't know. For all I know, the 00 stamp just means, "presentation pipe, not for regular sale," and that would make the "00" more or less meaningless.

I have never seen an unstamped Nørding or an 00 grade Nørding, so they caught my eye. Superlative grades on a sandblasted pipe are kind of a 'meh' thing anyways, right?

 

[Waning Embers]

It seems like what you described as looking like a sand pit could easily be small nicks or gouges from handling in the years since the pipe was graded; it seems unlikely a pipe would get a high grade with a flaw like a sand pit, but you never know.

Depending on the ring grain some artisans can turn a pit in a sandblast to an esthetically pleasing feature.

 

[Waning Embers]

View attachment 409260
Maybe better lighting and perspective would help? The eBay seller of the first pipe doesn't photograph pipes like it's a hobby...
View attachment 409262View attachment 409263
View attachment 409264

Sorry if I came off harsh. The blast looks more like the block was chosen for blasting to cover flaws or lack of grain rather than chosen for blasting. The hardwood grain is erratic and appears to be an attempt to save an uninteresting block. In the '80s he came up with an idea to save blocks by making them look like meerschaum but even those low grade pipes had fantastic blasts.

 

[Waning Embers]

The eBay seller of the first pipe doesn't photograph pipes like it's a hobby...

I trust those more. They don't know what to hide if flaws are present.

 

[PLANofMAN]

Sorry if I came off harsh. The blast looks more like the block was chosen for blasting to cover flaws or lack of grain rather than chosen for blasting. The hardwood grain is erratic and appears to be an attempt to save an uninteresting block. In the '80s he came up with an idea to save blocks by making them look like meerschaum but even those low grade pipes had fantastic blasts.
View attachment 409344

If you're used to seeing ring grain blasts, I can see that. And those Nørdcoat pipes are neat. There's been speculation that he uses powdered meerschaum in the coating...

Both of the pipes I posted are mostly birdseye on both cheeks of the pipe. Not the most attractive blast possible, but I think it was a deliberate choice. The one Nørding GWR pipe I have seen that was smooth, was straight grain, and had an A grade, it was also a light colored stain like mine (unfortunately, I didn't save the pictures). Of the other three blasts I've seen from this series, two are bird's-eye like mine. The other has more ring grain (and I suspect that one may have been intended to be one of the smooth models, but a flaw popped up, so he blasted it).

The case came with a card detailing the (actual) world record pipe, and a briar tamper. Unfortunately, mine only came with the case.

Unknown grade


Unknown grade/unsmoked


Grade 2 (The owner never posted the other side of the pipe)


Here's my grade 2 pipe, from the 'Scandinavian Originals' line, on the bottom. Still haven't figured out if it's a squat tomato or a volcano. It's all birdseye on the bottom of the stummel.

Erik made ALL of the GWR pipes himself, they weren't part of his lower grade pipes, and he has said that he didn't make many of them.

Whether they have poor grain or not, I assumed he hand picked the best blocks he had on hand for these, and choose the grain orientation. I also assumed he would save the lightest stain for the better pipes. Perhaps I was wrong. Wouldn't be the first time, and certainly won't be the last.

 

[PLANofMAN]

As soon as I saw "Norway" I knew I would not want it.

Thank you for your insightful contribution. Not sure where you saw the word "Norway" though.

Erik Nørding is Danish. The pipes are made in Denmark.

It's okay though, Danish pipes are not to everyone's taste (it took me a while, but I've come to the conclusion that people who can't appreciate Danish pipes are not, in fact, uncultured swine). The fewer people who like them, the cheaper the prices on the estate market. Bad for my heirs I guess, but good for me in the here and now, eh?