A Danish via Dallas

Last weekend Kayla and I traveled to Dallas for a wedding and I took the opportunity to search the local pipe shops for a new addition to my collection. We found a shop in north Dallas called Up in Smoke to begin my quest. The shop had an incredible atmosphere and a superb pipe collection. After a quick study of all that lay before me my attention was drawn to a quaint Nording poker hiding in the back of the case. But all came to an abrupt stop when I mentioned to the sales lady that this would be my first Nording. Quickly she placed the pipe back in its proper space and reached for another. Turning to me she said “If you are going for your first Nording there is only one to start with” and presented me with an Erik Nording hand-made free form signature model crafted by the man himself. There sprawled across it was the legends signature. It was totally natural, no stain, no varnish, no finish at all just the natural aged beauty of the raw briar. The rim of the bowl still contained the rough outer portion of the briar totally untouched. I was love at first sight and I was sold. The sales lady went to the back to retrieve her own to show me the beautiful patina that the natural briar was taking on with each smoke. I finished off the visit with a tin of McClelland’s Frog Morton on the Bayou and left a most satisfied man to face the grueling Dallas traffic once again.