From plastic to fantastic - Nørding Pipes
Next year our little shop will celebrate its 50-years anniversary.
Extraordinary, at the same time, we are celebrating 50 years of cooperation with several suppliers – suppliers that have had impact on the shop and on me personally.
One of them is my "Uncle Eric" – or as you know him: Erik Nørding. Through the years, Erik is by far the Danish pipe maker who has exported the most pipes to all over the world. He has been able to do this, because he is a skilled businessman, pipe maker and a charming individual.
Erik also charmed my father Steffen. He did it so well that my father was one of his very first professional customers and they became best friends. Steffen was the manager of a famous pipe and tobacco shop Wilhelm Jørgensen and in that position he placed the very first orders back in the 60ies.
A funny detail is that one of Steffen’s employees at that time was Jens Tao Nielsen who later ended up making pipes by Erik Nørding and then later he developed his own career in pipe making.
Until my father’s passing on January 31st 2011 Erik called my father every day to check up on him, sales or just for a chat – and naturally he was one of the pallbearers at my father’s funeral.
But back in the 70s and 80s where pipe smoking in Denmark was booming, Erik and Steffen had a lot of fun and sold a lot of pipes. Of course, Erik also wanted his teenage son, Knud, to lean about the business, so for many years Knud worked for Steffen in the shop.
Later Knud started an international career and with a base in Copenhagen and Switzerland he established his life and family. Two-three years ago Knud decided to jump into the pipe business to help his father, and since then they have worked side by side on developing new markets and designs.
Through the years our shop has had a big selection of Nørding Pipes and we will continue to always have that. Their range is mind blowing – from colourful plastic pipes, crazy freehand to high end handmade.
Erik loves machines and cutting down costs to make the products affordable or making sure you can smoke all the tobacco which is the case with the Keystone pipes.
Another good example of their entrepreneurship is the invention of the aluminum spigot system.
Its smart for several reasons:
You can change the stem in a split second and convert the pipe to a 9 mm filter pipe without any other changes. In addition, it decreases the time used for making sure you have the correct stem and shank connection when making a pipe.
Finally, it looks really good!
There is no doubt that Nørding makes a lot of pipes, and it is mainly factory made pipes, but now and then Erik goes back to basics. He picks some of his best briar wood and brings it to his summer house, where he has made a small only handmade pipe workshop.
These are the ones called ‘Erik Nørding Handmade group 12 to 25’.
I started this blog with telling about our shop turning 50 in 2019, and at the same time Erik will turn 80 in 2019 – just as my father would have.
With this important year in mind, we will launch a lot of exciting ‘The Danish Pipe Shop Anniversary’-products including a special limited edition of Nørding Pipes that Erik and Knud currently are working on.
We predict it will be some kind of a bulldog, since the small bulldog from Nørding was my father’s favourite shape. So, in memory of my father and his friendship with Erik and our 50 years of business relationship with Nørding Pipes, we are looking forward to presenting the 50th Anniversary Pipe from Nørding Pipes.
(We don’t know when it will be available yet – we will announce it on our website and in the newsletter as soon as we know)
