Handmade by Eric Nording Grade 3 Freehand

[Briar Lee]

About a month ago I bought a brand new unsmoked Nording Grade 1 Freehand. It was pure torture to break in, although it’s behaving itself better with each smoke, now.

Rummaging through my huge stash of pipes I spied my Handmade by Eric Nording #3 I bought over forty years ago for about $40, and compared to my new Grade #1, this is a far better bench made by the master’s hand bauble and pretty plaything, than the new one.

I notice a ripple in the side, that probably caused Eric Nording to call this one a #3, instead of a higher grade. He may not have made it, but he probably looked over the shoulder of the artisan that did, at least.

My new #1 Grade is simply stamped MADE IN DENMARK, but nothing about being handmade by Eric Nording.

And the old stamps, aren’t perfect.

 

[gamzultovah]

Newminster 400, good choice. Enjoy.

 

[WVOldFart]

I'm sure the new Nording will be a great smoker once it is broken in. I like Danish pipes. They have such a solid, well built feel in a hand. Mine smoke great with no trouble. They are beautiful pieces of art.

 

[FurCoat]

Don't know much about them. My wife got me an Erik Nording handmade for my birthday. Great pipe.

 

[Briar Lee]

I do have a ulterior motive for digging this old Handmade by Eric Nording #3 out.

I know that this old #3 is genuine, because I bought it on the Plaza in Kansas City Missouri in the late 1970s.

It needed breaking in, too, and I remember being so disappointed that it did. $40 then would be about like $200 now, and this was the cheapest Nording for sale, to a frugal boy from Humansville.

My new #1 Grade Nording, was bought from an anonymous Tucson Arizona seller on eBay that didn’t even advertise it as unsmoked. I only paid $100, and thaf by rights should cost $175 new from a legitimate source.

I doubt my new one is fake.

If you were going to fake a Nording, you’d find a very old one and copy the stamp nomenclature right down to the original stampings.

I want to feel and handle a known high grade bench made pipe by a master.

My old #3 Nording, has a rather cheap gold filled stamping about like a 1970’s Lee would have, when Lee was just about done.

I have a White Spot NOT FOR SALE pipe coming in the mail from Germany along with an early Nording freehand marked only SON from the Ukraine.

Both should be bench made, by the master’s hand.

That high dollar feel of hand made quality, is hard to counterfeit.