Danish Estates: Nording Smooth Bent Apple Tobacco Pipe

A trailblazer for the Danish Fancy style, Erik Nørding has been handcrafting pipes since the 1960s. Even before his pipe-making career, Nørding always had a knack for invention. Taking after his father, he worked as a blacksmith when he was 15 years old and later studied engineering, all in preparation to one day take over his family's factory. After graduating, Nørding veered away from running the factory and took up fashioning pipe-making machinery, which would lead him toward making his own pipes. A plump, palm-filling rendition, this bent Apple from Nørding sees a hearty bowl upfront, formed by thick, rotund walls curving from the round heel toward the craggy rim. Emphasizing the bowl's figure is a tight transition out back, which gives way to an upturned shank that flares broadly to a craggy shank face and pairs to a bent tapered stem with a stylish expansion ring at its base. The stummel wears a rich, chestnut stain that reveals healthy grain throughout.