CL had just clocked out when I got into work.

I was carrying my PipeFolio in one hand and my Amazon Kindle in the other. It was a beautiful Monday night, to my eyes, with a steady rain and grey sky. I knew that this meant the night would either be extremely busy or extremely dead. A selfish part of me was hoping for the latter, as I had just gotten to an exciting part of A Dance With Dragons, by George R. R. Martin, and I was looking forward to trying out a new tobacco.

After I clocked in, I strolled back often to the host’s station, which is simply a small counter with a phone and calendar next to the bar. Rainy weather always puts me in a good mood, that night being no exception.

Twenty minutes into my shift, no one had walked in. About that same time, CL dropped his backpack next to where I was standing and leaned against the counter with a glass of red wine in his hand.

One of the things I really admire about CL is his ability to appreciate a plethora of flavors, a skill that has made him an aficionado on wine, beer, and scotch, and he is working on adding pipe tobacco the list.

“So, I have a pipe question for you.”

Wonderful, I thought, putting my Kindle down in anticipation. It is a rare that a young man gets to help educate the bar manager where one works, so I was not going to pass the opportunity. Plus, as someone who helped spark his fascination with pipes, I feel like I have a stake in his continuing enjoyment, as, indeed, all pipe smokers have in the continued proliferation of our community as a whole.

“I recently snagged some Full Virginia Flake –“ Read more

We all use stereotypes. Every single one of us, every single day. For example, someone at a restaurant hands you something in glass that is liquid and perfectly clear, has no aroma and no fizz. You assume that it is water based on your stereotypes of the world. Some stereotypes are useful; some are harmful.

One particular stereotype out there concerns our hobby, my friends. For the purposes of context, take a look at this picture: Read more

In a blog on this site back in September,  https://www.craighobson.com/archive/qualitybriar/2011/09/the-price-of-information/, Chris Lee expressed an understandable dismay at the prices of briars being offered for sale on Chinese sites, amounts which appeared to reflect a 300% markup. In thoughtful reply, Warren Wiguto speculated that those figures might well reflect a combination of market availability, as well as the allure of the “exotic, rare or luxurious”. Reading Mr Lee’s blog, I felt a weight rise from my shoulders. Finally, someone started a dialog on a subject that many are aware of, but no one seemed to want to discuss, and Warren’s hypothesis is undoubtedly part of the equation. For a few years I have studied the Chinese pipe market, mainly concentrating on the trail of the product from the source, and the subsequent pricing at the end. So, how do the briars get there, and why is the end user paying what seems to be an exorbitant tribute? Here’s the skinny. Read more

What do you expect from a pipe called a “Strawberries and Cream Blowfish”? Probably a very interesting, and possibly deadly, dinner experience, for one thing. However, despite the interesting images conjured up by such a moniker, the title is a perfect descriptor for one of Chris Askwith’s most recent creations.

This question was recently posed on a particular pipe-smoking forum on which I am an active member. I thought it was an interesting question from the outset, and the result of the conversation was both unexpected and fascinating.

For those of you who don’t know, allow me to give you a brief biography of Bo Nordh and what this was even asked. If you do already know, feel free to skip down a little.

Bo Nordh was one of the revolutionary pipe makers, a statement that can hardly be denied even by his critics. Mr. Nordh was raised and lived in Sweden and made his first pipe shortly after graduating with a degree in machine-engineering. One of the first things that irritated him about those initial blocks, and something continued to influence his carving for years to come, was the amount of flaws found within the briar; it was simply unacceptable to Bo.

After selling his first pipes to Olle Jonsson, Bo was encourage to meet up with Sixten Ivarsson. To call Sixten a giant, despite his slightly diminutive appearance, would be an understatement. In this initial meeting, Sixten shared his knowledge of the minutiae with Bo, the little details required to make not only a beautiful, but also a functional pipe.

From that moment, Bo’s career continued to skyrocket, though he only made around fifty pipes a year. This low output came as a consequence with his obsession with quality. As we are told from grade-school onward: quality over quantity.

Bo drilled all of his pipes by hand and would always ensure that the shape that we was going to make matched the briar block. Much like many sculptors, Bo believed in inspecting the block of briar to see what shape was hidden inside and would then try to free it, rather than forcing the block to match the shape that he needed to make.

Many of you might be familiar with the Ramses shape, a shape that is known for being rather “high-end”, as you don’t often see many of them below the triple or quadruple digits. Well, you can thank Bo Nordh for that shape.

So, with that short biography out of the way, we must return to the initial question: Do I aspire to own a Bo Nordh pipe? Yes, I do.

Bo Nordh is an incredibly important figure in the pipe world, not only creating one of the most beautiful shapes, in my mind, but also carver some incredible works of art. His dedication to quality over quantity and his desire to work with the briar resulted in pipes that would shine in even the greatest of collections.

I was surprised to find that I was in the minority when I expressed this opinion on that particular online forum, and it seems to me that a lot of people got caught up by the word “aspire”. People seemed willing to admit that they wanted a Bo Nordh, but did not aspire to own one. Read more