Rökringar was founded in 1992 and is a magazine for members of the Pipe Club of Sweden. It is published four times a year, in February, May, September and November. It contains articles about pipes, how to take care of your pipes, presentations of pipemakers, reviews of litterature about pipes and tobacco, tests of tobacco blends, letters from our readers and much more. It is richly illustrated all in color. You will also be informed about what is happening in pipe-clubs in other countries. Foreign members get an English summary with every issue.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 126 September 2022
The pipes on the cover of this issue are our new club-pipes, made by Tom Eltang. More information and pictures inside the magazine.
We have an article about a humorous man, who runs a roastery for coffee in the town of Laholm. He has designed a pipe that is heated with a small storm lighter and in which you can brew a cup of coffee.
Johan Hedborg shows some rarities from his large collection of antique pipes and Olov Andersson talks about slightly different phenomena in society.
Having been cancelled for a few years due to the pandemic, the International Pipe Show in Chicago was back. We show some pictures from that show and a few pipes that Vollmer & Nilsson brought there. It can be added that none of the pipes went back to Sweden.
The Swedish artist Ralle Perera has sent us two beautiful drawings and we have also some excerpts from a Swedish detective novel, which contains a lot of pipe smoking.
One of the great pioneers of Danish pipe-making, Gert Holbek, passed away on May 7 at the age of 93. He is deeply missed. We remember our memorable encounters with him and show some of his pipes.
Our pipe auction was held in June after a few years break. It was a very successful event and all 79 pipes, offered for sale, got new owners.
We also have some tobacco reviews as well as some newspaper clippings, this time from 1989.
Please enjoy it all!
Your editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 125 May 2022
The cruel war in Ukraine has led to immense suffering and many are trying to do what they can to help the Ukrainian people. Pipemakers are no exception. On the initiative of Nanna Ivarsson, several pipemakers have donated pipes that were sold on e-bay and the money have been used to help colleagues in Ukraine.
One day, sorting some books on the bookshelf, I found John Dickson Carr’s biography about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and started to reread parts of it. The book was published in 1950 and the author received several awards for it. It really highlights what a versatile man Conan Doyle was.
My good friend Rick Newcombe tipped me about another book, The Memoires of Stockholm Sven, which he had found most exciting. It is a charming story that takes place in Svalbard, Norway. It is not a pipe book in the usual sense, but there is quite a lot about pipe-smoking in it. Highly recommended!
Barling is one of the oldest English pipe brands, dating back to 1812, with a long and interesting story. Their pipes have not been available on the Swedish market for many decades, but now that have changed. The German company Kropp has bought the rights and has started a production. It is mainly focused on the German market, but some of them are also imported to Sweden.
It is several years since last time, but now we announce a new pipe-making competition. In order to participate, you must not have sold any pipes professionally. Pre-drilled blocks can be ordered from our club and they are delivered by Tom Eltang.
This year’s Danish Championship, which was arranged in March after a two-year break. We have a report from that event. And we have a discussion about drilling a new tenon for an amateur. Also Johan Hedborg has picked out some rarities from his large collection. The cover image is associated with his article.
We also pay attention to what was written in our magazine 25 years ago and we have looked in old scrapbooks from 1988.
We have an excerpt from a crime novel, where there is a lot of pipe-smoking and some causeries by our diligent writer Olov Andersson.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 124 February 2022
The pipe on the cover was made by James Upshall and was purchased at Bonds in London in 2001.
Many years ago, we heard about a factory called Skånska Pipfabriken. The factory was closed, and we could not find any information about it. Now, many years later, we got in touch with the man who owned that factory and can tell the story about it, which is found below.
Polishing silver with cigars is a well-known method. One of our Danish members had some amusing views on how to make the job as pleasant as possible.
Ben Rapaport has published a new book, his ninth in the order. The title is AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY 1850 – 1920. We understand that there is extensive research behind this book, a book that tells everything, absolutely everything, about what happened in the tobacco industry during the years 1850-1920. It contains more than 300 pages and can be ordered via an email to: ben70gray@gmail.com. Highly recommended!
As usual, we look back at what was written in our magazine 25 years ago. We can clearly see that times have changed a lot since then. That year, Arlanda Airport got a new smoking-room, decorated as an English pub. It has now since long disappeared.
A list of famous pipe smokers was published on the net and the only person from Sweden on that list was a woman, Greta Garbo. It was in the film Ninotschka from 1939 she smoked a pipe.
This year the European Championships took place in Graz, Austria, and we have a report from the exhibitions there. We have previously reported about all interesting meetings we had during that event.
One of our members talks about his great interest in bird-photography and how he can be sitting for hours in hides to wait for the right moment. Then the pipe is always a good company.
We also have some causeries by our Honorary Member, Olov Andersson, as well as interesting excerpts from a Swedish crime novel, published 1949, where the main character constantly smokes his pipe.
When it comes to newspaper clippings, we have now reached 1987, a year that was completely dominated by one single figure, Sherlock Holmes. That year it was 100 years since the first book about the master detective was published, A Study in Scarlet.
Skånska Pipfabriken
Many years ago, I visited the Homestead Museum in Hyllstofta, a small village situated only a few miles from where I live. There I saw a pipe made from beech wood, which was made in Hyllstofta circa 1940. I asked those responsible at the museum if they had any further information about the pipe, but they had not.
Much later, in the early 90’s, during a visit to the tobacconist’s Pip-Larsson in Malmö, I found a brochure from a factory called Skånska Pipfabriken. It was a beautiful brochure in color and on 16 pages an extensive range of pipes and accessories were shown. Of course, I was curious and when I noticed that the factory was situated in Hyllstofta, I became even more curious. In the brochure there were two phone numbers, but both had been closed. So, it was not possible to go any further.
At the end of last year, our club’s president, Per Billhäll, was contacted by a man, who had a Bo Nordh pipe he wanted to sell. He also mentioned that he earlier had owned a factory called Skånska Pipfabriken. This was indeed interesting news and having got the contact information I called Olle Davidsson, as the man was called, to hear about the background to it all.
Olle Davidsson told me that he was active in the shipping industry. After spending two years in New Zealand, where he was involved in conveying the rental and crewing of ships, he returned to Sweden in the late 1980s. Here he engaged in the same type of business and manned ships for many of the largest shipping companies. This meant that he had 250–300 sailors employed. Many sailors can’t imagine a different life than that at sea, but after many years some want to have a job ashore, so they can spend more time with their families. To help these men to get a job, the shipping company bought several companies in different operations. One of these was a carpentry factory in Hyllstofta that employed a dozen workers. Mainly they were devoted to manufacturing specially ordered kitchens for Ballingslöv and laminate plates for Perstorp Industries.
But Olle discovered that there also was a company that had been dormant since the 1940s and was called Skånska Pipfabriken. He also discovered that in the attic of the carpentry, there were some tools and machines that had been used for pipe-making. He also heard from one of the employees that the man’s father had been making pipes at the factory.
Olle thought this sounded interesting, especially as he himself was a pipe-smoker. This was in 1988 and at that time the price of cigarettes had increased dramatically, so Olle thought that there should be an increasing market for pipes.
Olle got in touch with a small pipe-factory in Greece and spent a week there. This factory was partly involved in making pipes mechanically, but also had a few pipemakers who worked entirely manually. From that factory he bought pipes that were called LIRO. But he was also allowed to buy semi-finished pipes, and the intention was that these should be completed and get their final finish at the factory in Hyllstofta. Olle knew the pipemaker Bo Nordh and visited him to see if he was willing to design the shapes for them. Bo turned this down as he did not want to interfere in any factory production.
The pipe-making in Hyllstofta was no success. Olle says that only about a dozen pipes were completed there, the rest were manufactured in Greece.
However, it proved difficult to get profitability in importing and selling pipes, so the business was discontinued quite soon, and the factory devoted itself entirely to making kitchens.
At the end of the 1990s, Olle sold the factory and if the company Skånska Pipfabriken still exists as a dormant company is not known. However, it is unlikely that it will be brought back to life.
We can also show two pipes made in the factory.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 123 November 2021
The pipe on the cover was made by Bruto Sordini (Don Carlos pipes) and the shape is called Melos. In the year 2000 Bruto also made a special club-pipe for our club.
The author and illustrator Gunilla Bergström has passed away. In our country she is above all loved for the 22 books she wrote about the boy Alfons Åberg and his daddy. A special thing is that Alfon’s father always was smoking a pipe.
The author who has written most books on our subject undoubtedly is Benjamin Rapaport. A new book by him has just been published, and the title is An Intimate History of the Tobacco Industry, 1850-1920. We are eagerly waiting for our copy and will have a full re-view in the next issue.
What do you know about pipe-making in Norway? For most of us I suppose it starts and ends with Gudbrand Larsen in Lillehammer. But there was a lot more, especially during the second world war and the following decades. In an extensive article Nils Ivar Agøy tells us all about that.
As usual we have looked at what was written in our magazine 25 years ago. That year
The Nordic Smokers Guild celebrated its 25s anniversary and in connection to that jubilee a special pipe was made by Søren Refbjerg.
We have looked at some clippings from 1986. In those days well-known persons often were pictured with a pipe. To-day it is completely different. We have pictures of a well-known author and journalist called Lars Ulvenstam, Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, Lord Manny Shinwell, seldom seen without his pipe, the well-known musician, Giovanni Jaconelli, who was also great collector of pipes and some more.
We also have some short stories and a chapter from the book My Lady Nicotine.
Jan Andersson
Editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 122 September 2021
The pipe on the cover of this issue was made by the Danish pipemaker Tom Eltang.
In the beginning of this century, Ser Jacopo della Gemma in Italy made a series of pipes called Picta. The shapes were inspired by the many self-portraits Vincent van Gogh made and on almost all of them he has a pipe in his mouth. 16 shapes were made and 4 of them are pictured in different places in this issue. You can also see one of the master’s self-portraits.
In October 2008, the Romanian Commander-in-Chief visited Sweden and his host during the visit was his Swedish counterpart. One of the places they visited was the shipyard in Karlskrona and the famous ropeyard situated there. The manager of that ropeyard was Lee Radehag, a member of our club and a devoted pipe-smoker. Lee tells us about that visit and how the two commanders-in-chief made a rope together. After that there was time for a break, and it turned out that the Romanian commander was a pipe-smoker. Lee had just opened a new tin of tobacco and he offered his guest a pipe-full. The commander-in-chief filled his pipe and having been smoking for a while he expressed his great appreciation of the tobacco.
Martin Jönsson tells about a visit to his local tobacconist in Karlhamn and your editor tells about an old pipe and a pipe rack, dated 1794, that he inherited from his wife’s grandparents.
We sadly have to announce that one of the veterans of Danish pipe-making, Søren Refbjerg, has left us at the age of 78. Søren has spent his entire life in the pipe-making business, and he has made two annual pipes for our club. He will be missed a lot.
Unfortunately, also another of our members has left us. Sten Klang was only 63 years old when he passed away and many of our readers have met him, as he was a frequent visitor to our meetings and, furthermore, he has taken part in several international championships.
Our honorary member, Olov Andersson, is telling us about various phenomena in our modern society in an entertaining way.
In these times, most meetings have been cancelled, but MGKK (Matteröds Gammeldansk Kapnismoliska Klubb) have had a couple of outdoor meetings during the summer and we show some pictures from these meetings.
We are also looking back at what was written in our magazine 25 years ago. It is curious to see that so much have changed in our society during this – after all – rather limited time.
Jan Andersson
Editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 121 May 2021
The current pandemic continues to limit our lives and all activities in our club. So, this issue is marked by a lot of what has happened in the past. However, we have a very gratifying announcement to make – we have a new Swedish pipemaker, who has already established himself on the international market. His name is Andreas Persson and of course we have visited him.
After all these years, we have had to change the printing-works for this newspaper. Soini Andersson, who has helped us all the time from the beginning, has decided to retire with age. We thank him for an excellent cooperation over all these years.
Olov Andersson is a diligent writer, and he amuses us with a new causerie and Johan Hedborg, who recently published his book Pip-Potpurri, has written an article about his antique meerschaum-pipes.
As usual, we look at what was written in our magazine 25 years ago and your editor tells you about some memorable meetings in the past.
We have a new chapter from My Lady Nicotine and some funny stories, conveyed by one of our readers.
Today, it is unusual for famous people to appear on camera with a pipe in their mouths. Earlier it was quite the opposite and we have been looking at newspaper clippings from the years 1980 – 1985.
Finally, we also have some small tips that can be useful to fellow pipe-smokers (pages 28 – 30).
Jan Andersson
Editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 120 FEBRUARY 2021
The pandemic continues to complicate our lives and all meetings, auctions and other activities in our club are cancelled. But despite that we have a few new things to report.
Johan Hedborg has written a lot of articles about antique and curious pipes for our magazine. These articles have now been collected in a book called “Pip-potpurri”. The book was published last December, just in time for Johan’s 90s birthday. Foreigners who want to buy the book may contact the secretary of our club on jan-pipa@outlook.com
We also have a new amateur pipemaker, Mathias Amnell, who tells about how he got interested in pipes and how he started making pipes with very simple tools. Of course, we have pictures showing some of his beautiful pipes.
The construction of a pipe is not very complicated, just a bowl and a stem are necessary. But why not make it more complicated if you can? We have looked at all requests sent to the U. S. Patent Office from 1858 – 1899. All those requests are collected in two great volumes of 1250 pages, compiled by S. Paul Jung Jr. and published in a limited addition in 1987. We show you a few of those complicated and amusing patents.
We also have a chapter from My Lady Nicotine, a little about what was written in our magazine 25 years ago and causeries from three of our members about their experiences in the world of pipes.
Finally we have the story about Gudbrand Larsen’s pipe-factory in Lillehammer.
Please enjoy it all!
Jan Andersson
Editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 119 NOVEMBER 2020
The pandemic continues to complicate our lives and most activities in our pipe-club are cancelled. However, we have the pleasure to report about two new things that have happened since last time.
In Karlskrona, a city on the southern coast of Sweden, a large archaeological excavation has started and a complete pipe factory from the 18s century was found. Even the furnace was in quite good condition, which is unique. Unfortunately, we have not been given permission to climb down to see the excavation in detail, but it certainly is extensive.
One of our most beloved Swedish writers is Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (1895– 1972), who with his humorous stories and colorful figures still amuses us. The most famous illustrator of his short stories and novels is the artist Alf Andersson. In a new book, published a few months ago, a great number of Alf’s drawings and paintings are found. We have the pleasure to show some of the artwork in this great book.
Alf is a dedicated pipe-smoker and a member of our club. He has previously entertained us with several causeries, we have had the pleasure of showing some of his artwork and he has also written a long series of tobacco reviews. In this issue we have a new story from him about when he in his youth was working in a sawmill. That story is richly illustrated.
As is well known, SAAB is an old Swedish car. One of our members came across a pipe from Dunhill stamped with the name of that car-factory. Apparently, SAAB ordered a series of pipes from Dunhill that was called “The Dunhill Collection for SAAB”.
We also talk about some activities in our local clubs and, as usual, we look back at what was written in our magazine 25 years ago. We also have a chapter from the book My Lady Nicotine.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Jan Andersson
Editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 118 September 2020
Like last time, this issue is marked by the prevailing pandemic, as it has not been possible to arrange or visit any events or meetings. So instead we will tell you about some memorable events and other things that happened a long time ago.
We have a large production of matches in our country and it all started in 1844, when the safety match was invented by Gustav Erik Pasch. The most common match here in Sweden is called Solstickan. The little boy on the box was made by the artist Ture Nerman. It was introduced in the beginning of the last century and is still in use. Probably it is the most frequently reproduced piece of art in the entire world. Johan Hedborg tells us about the long history of the Swedish Match Company and he is the right man to do so, as his father was the leader of one of the company’s industries.
After a long life with pipes and tobacco, I have decided to tell you about some memorable international events, I have taken part in. The first was in 1984 and the last reported in this issue took place in 2003.
It has not been possible to visit any pipemakers to see what they have achieved lately, so instead I have pictured some of the pipes from my private collection.
In Rökringar no. 18, published exactly 25 years ago, we told the story about Charles Rattray and how he started blending tobaccos in Perth, Scotland. But that year also two new books were published here in Sweden. The first is about Jungfru Sophia Isberg (1819 – 1875), who was the first Swedish pipemaker with great international reputation. One of her beautifully carved pipes is pictured in this issue. The other book is about all tobacco produced in Sweden up to 1995. It contains a lot of beautiful pictures of old tobacco tins and pouches and tells when every single mark was introduced and when the production stopped.
We also have some interesting drawings from a special edition of the book Tobacco in Song & Story by John Bain Jr. This edition was printed by Arents Collection in New York in a limited edition of 500 copies.
Jan Andersson
Editor
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 117 May 2020
In times like these our pipe really can shed some light in everyday life. And let us never lose hope of a better future.
The beautiful pipe on the cover was made by the pipemaker Jonas Rosengren in Halmstad, a town situated on the west coast of Sweden.
We have almost no news to bring you this time as, as you know, all meetings and events have been cancelled since our last issue was published.
We are sorry to tell that the journalist and author Walter Loewe has left us at the age of 94. He has made more than any other person to document the history about tobacco growing, fabrication and trade here in Sweden. A list of all his books is found in this issue. All books are written in Swedish except Petum Optimum that was published in both a Swedish and an English edition.
The last time we published a complete article about the pipemaker Bo Nordh in this magazine was 26 years ago. So, we thought it was about time to tell it again and of course we have updated the information and have new pictures of his pipes. Sadly, Bo died in 2006.
We also look back and tell you what was written in our magazine 25 years ago. At that time, we still had a tobacco industry in our country and the company for fabrication and distribution was called The House of Borkum Riff (owned by Swedish Match). Our club had a very good cooperation with that company.
Olov Andersson was a founder member of our club and for many years a member of the board as our treasurer. He tells us about his long life with pipes and tobacco, starting just after WWII. A fascinating story.
And usual we have some tobacco reviews and a little this and that.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 116 February 2020
The beautiful pipe on the cover of this issue was made by the pipemakers Vollmer & Nilsson in Malmö and the bottle of whisky is from a small brewery on Ven, an island situated between Sweden and Denmark.
We are sorry to tell you that no more Bang-pipes will be made in the future. Per Hansen and Ulf Noltensmeier have decided to retire and the workshop is now closed. They will certainly be missed by a lot of pipe-smokers and collectors all over the world.
One of our members, Johan Hedborg, has a huge collecting of book and he tells us about a few, very rare books and shows some interesting pictures from them.
As told before our club-pipe last year was made by the young Danish pipemaker Mike Sebastian Bay. We are glad to tell you that 56 pipes were sold.
At a show in Copenhagen last December we met a new Danish pipemaker and got interested in what he had accomplished. His name is Morten Rasted and he has been making pipes for ten years, but not as a full-time job. We visited him in his workshop, situated not far from the bridge to Sweden. We got especially interested in a pipe that was ordered by a customer, who is a devoted fisherman. The shank of that pipe was made from a fishing rod, made in “splitcane” technique.
We also have looked upon what was written in our magazine 25 years ago, in November 1994 and February 1995. 1994 was a very special year, as the World Championship in pipe-smoking was arranged in Copenhagen that year. It was a great event with huge exhibitions by pipemakers from many countries. 16 members of our club took part in the competition but without success. But all of us had a great day, so that was not especially important.
Charatan is a make favored by many pipe-smokers and collectors in our part of the world. We tell the story about the Charatan factory and show some of their beautiful pipes.
We also have another chapter from J. M. Barrie’s book My Lady Nicotine and a report from two of our members, who made a tour around Florida
As usual we also have some tobacco-reviews and a little of everything.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 115 November 2019
The cover of this issue shows William Bragge (1823-1884), in his time a famous collector of tobacciana. The pipe, made from silver, is from Buriram in Thailand, a province situated close to the border to Cambodia.
We have the pleasure to present a new Swedish pipemaker, Jonas Alteryd. A translation of the article is found below.
Our member Johan Hedborg has specialized in the history of the pipe and has a large collection of books on the subject, some of them very rare, and he tells us about some of them.
The Comoy-pipe is well-known to all pipe-smokers and collectors. We bring you the whole story of that old family company.
InterTabac is the greatest fair for tobacco-related objects in Europe. It is not open to the public but only to people in the trade. One of our members took part in it as a professional photographer and gives a report about his experiences.
We also bring our readers another chapter from My Lady Nicotine, a short summary from our annual pipe-auction and some tobacco reviews.
Jonas Alteryd – carpenter-pastor- pipemaker
When meeting new pipemakers, it is always interesting to hear why they from the beginning, became interested in pipe-making. For some of them it has been a dream since they were young, for others it is a pure coincidence. For the newest Swedish pipemaker, Jonas Alteryd, it certainly was a coincidence and it all happened in Liseberg, an amusement park in Gothenburg. We will return to that later, but let us start from the beginning.
Jonas Alteryd (* 1976) was born on the island of Gotland, but spent most of his youth in Gästrikland, more precisely in a small town called Ockelbo. Already as a little boy he loved spending time in the family outbuilding, where he made various things from wood. His dream at this time was to become a carpenter, a dream he realized after graduating from school. However, after a few years he stopped building houses and instead he started studying theology at the Theological University in Stockholm. He completed these studies by spending a year at a university in Chicago. After that Jonas has moved around a lot in Sweden, but he has also spent six months in Tanzania.
In 2007, Jonas and his wife Sara bought a house in a small community called Örby, located not very far from Gothenburg. There Jonas got work as a pastor of a Mission Church. The house, Jonas and Sara had bought, needed to be renovated, something Jonas was fit for as an educated carpenter.
But what about that experience in Liseberg? It all happened in the winter. The family was visiting the well-known amusement park and while Jonas’ wife and children devoted themselves to carousel riding, Jonas wandered around in the park. Suddenly he felt an extremely nice smell in the chilly winter air. He had to go closer to see what it was. It turned out to come from a booth, where pipes and cigars were sold. Jonas liked the smell and atmosphere so much that he without hesitation bought a pipe and some tobacco, something he did not dare to tell his wife at the time. When he eventually did, she thought he had an age-crisis, as he would soon turn 40.
In any case, Jonas started looking around the net to find as much information as possible about pipe-making. He found it extremely interesting. An acquaintance of Jonas was a great inspiration, as he had been making pipes for many years. His name is Lars Svahn. All readers of this magazine are well acquainted with Lars, as we have had several articles about him in this magazine. Jonas was really inspired when he saw what Lars had accomplished. Back home, the car was moved outside as the garage had to be rebuilt into a pipemaker’s workshop.
Jonas already had a lot of tools and machines, but he was missing something important – a lathe. In the end he found a Storebro, an old quality lathe, but a lot of renovation was needed. Most of the next winter was used to dismantle the lathe into its smallest constituents, cleaning, oiling and painting them. But it was time well used, because the lathe has worked great since then.
Jonas started making pipes in 2016 and he really loves when he can find the time to work in his workshop. Taking a block, studying the grain and eventually finding the pipe that is hiding inside the block, he finds fascinating. In addition, all pipemakers know that problems always arise, and solving them is a challenge. Then, after many hours of work, to sit there with the finished pipe in hand – yes, that is a feeling hard to surpass.
Partly Jonas buys briar from Mimmo in Italy and partly Greek briar from Jonas Rosengren, who has good contacts there. Jonas says that in particular Jonas Rosengren has been very helpful and generous with advice, which has helped a lot. Most of the stems are made from ebonite which he, like most other pipemakers, buys from Germany. Sometimes he also uses acrylic, but that is not very common.
Jonas pipes are smooth, rusticated or sandblasted. For the blaster he got hold of a powerful compressor, but a problem arose when he should install it. The compressor was so heavy that it could not be lifted and in addition it lacked wheels, so Jonas had to take down a part of the roof and lift it with the help of a large chain block borrowed from a farmer. “It causes a lot of noise and sometimes I’m afraid it will explode,” says Jonas a little amused, “but it works well.”
Since 2012 Jonas has worked as a store manager in a shop nearby, a job he enjoys a lot. He has no plans to become a pipemaker full-time, but says he would like to get such momentum on the business that he could work shorter days. Then he could spend more time at home, which is desirable, not least for his children.
Jonas sells his pipes on his website (alterydpipes.se) as well as on Facebook and Instagram. They are also available from Scandinavian Pipes. Jonas tells us that his website apparently has attracted attention even abroad. Recently he sold a pipe to Belgium and previously he has sold a few to Australia.
We wish Jonas all the happiness in the future and I am convinced that we will have reason to return to him more times.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 114 September 2019
The pipe on the cover is this year’s club pipe, made by the young Danish pipemaker Mike Sebastian Bay. More pictures of the pipe are found inside the magazine.
We have sadly noticed that the last issue of Pipes & Tobaccos was published last Spring. A great loss to the world of pipes.
We are truly international this time and have an article from Japan and another one from Tanzania. The first article is written by Pelle Blomster, who is a great lover of that country in the far east and often goes there. This time he has visited the Fukashiro Pipe Factory and tells us a lot about its history as well as the production today.
The article from Tanzania is written by Michael Sporrong, who has been in that country several time during the last year. Michael has tried some of the local tobaccos and stout made there. Michael loves to enjoy his pipe with a glass of a good stout.
We have a speculation about old tobacco tins. Today it is not possible to make beautiful tins (at least not in Europe) due to the regulations that there must be a health warning on every single tin. So, it is likely that tins from the old days will be highly attractive for collectors in the future.
Your editor had the advantage to taste a tin of Craven Mixture from about 1930. As is well known, Craven Mixture was the tobacco called Arcadia Mixture in Barrie’s My Lady Nicotine. It was a very special feeling to smoke a tobacco from the time, when Sir James Matthew Barrie was still alive and regularly was walking to his tobacconist’s to buy that tobacco.
We have a little about was what written in our magazine 25 years ago and an amusing short story, written by one of our most loved columnists Gits Olsson, who passed away in 1985.
We also have a short report from the yearly “pipe-swim” in Bohuslän and, as usual, some tobacco reviews.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 113 May 2019
The pipe on the cover was made by Jonas Alteryd, a new Swedish pipemaker, who, for the first time, showed his pipes to the public at the Danish Championship last March. We wish him luck and hopefully we will get an opportunity to show more of his pipes in the future.
Another Swedish pipemaker is Lars Svahn, living on the island of Gotland. We have earlier written about him, as he was the winner of both pipemaker competitions for amateurs we have arranged. He is a very versatile man and has also made a knife and a beautiful hard pipe-cover in leather shown in this issue.
By now, Rökringar has a long story to look back at and we start a new series, telling what was written in our magazine 25 years ago. In the issue, published in May 1994, we had the very first article about Bo Nordh and we prepared a lot for the World Championship that was to be arranged in Copenhagen later that year.
The trade with estate pipes has for many years been common in the US, but in Europe it is quite new. But this type of trade is growing and during the last years several shops have started to sell used pipes. One good reason for this is that you can find pipes from factories, which are since long gone. We look upon some of the most interesting factory pipes, which really are worth looking for.
We have reports from the annual pipe auction in Copenhagen in February and the Danish Championship in March.
A new book about the pipemaker Tom Eltang, written by Jan Andersson, was released on the 20s of April in The Danish Pipe Shop in Copenhagen. Pictures from the release party and a review of the book are found in this issue.
We also have a chapter from J. M. Barrie’s book “My Lady Nicotine”, a tobacco review and much more.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 112 February 2019
The young boy on the cover is from an article by Johan Hedborg. He has titled his article “How small can a pipe be?” As you can see on the foot of the statue, the boy has borrowed his father’s pipe, probably without permission.
We have two articles from Asia, one about the pipe-show in Chengde, China, last October and one from Japan. In connection to the World Championship in Tokyo, Pelle Blomster visited the pipemaker Smio Satou, a visit he found extremely interesting. Last December we also had a much-appreciated visit in Stockholm. It was Mr. Hiro, vice VD of the Tsuge company, who visited our capital. The host during the visit was the pipemaker Andreas Bennwik, and Mr. Hiro visited his workshop and also attended a meeting in the local pipe-club of Stockholm.
The pipemaker, who told us about the pipe-show in Chengde, was Lars Jönsson (Lomma Pipes). He has taken part in that show six times and has a lot of memories from these visits. When we visited him to hear about his experiences, we, of course, also had to look at the pipes he had made lately. Pictures of them are found in this issue.
We also have a report from one of our local clubs. They tell us about the activities they have arranged during the last year. One of them is a swim competition – you must swim as long as you can with a pipe lit in your mouth. All members have also tried to make a pipe themselves.
In the last issue we had a competition “Who made that pipe?” The right answers are published in this issue.
My Lady Nicotine is a classic when it comes to causerie books, perhaps the best ever written, and the first edition was published in 1890. We tell our readers about its author, Sir James Matthew Barrie, the background to this book and, not least, the magic tobacco Arcadia Mixture. We have also translated one chapter from the book into Swedish.
As usual we also have reviews of some tobaccos.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
No. 111 November 2018
The pipe on the cover of this issue was made by the Czech pipemaker Karel Krska.
We have the pleasure to present two young Danish pipemakers, Mike Sebastian Bay and Johannes Gaarn Rasmussen. They are both working as apprentices in Tom Eltang’s workshop, but they are also making pipes of their own. We can show some pipes they have made and there is no doubt that they are extremely talented.
Making 7-days sets, with one pipe for each day of the week, is something many English manufacturers have devoted themselves to. Especially in the first part of the last century, all types of such sets were extremely popular, and they could hold anything from two to seven pipes. These sets were often used as gifts for birthdays or other special occasions and not seldom they had a sign in silver or gold with the name of the recipient engraved.
But it took a long time until an individual pipemaker made such a set. The first to do so was Tom Eltang and his first set was made in the beginning of this century. After that he has made another two sets.
But last spring, Tom took it a step further and presented The Collection. This set contains 17 pipes, one of which is a miniature pipe, placed in the center of the cabinet. All pipes are of the highest grading and it has taken Tom several years to make them. All the pipes are in briar and the ornaments are made from mammoth, horn, gold (22 carat), bamboo and box-wood. The cabinet is a masterpiece and was made from walnut. It was made by Ask Emil Skovgaard. The leather work was performed by John Nissen and the gold work by Vagn Drachman.
We have the pleasure to show pictures of the cabinet and all the pipes in it. The pictures were taken by the master photographer Lars Kiel.
At this time of the year, Stanwell always releases its Pipe of The Year 2019. This year, the pipe was designed by Johannes Gaarn Rasmussen and is available in five finishes. We show the pipe in all finishes in this issue.
More news from Stanwell: Revival are old shapes that Stanwell is making in limited editions. This time they have released shape no. 162 (a Calebash) and shape no. 131 (an Apple with a long shank). We show pictures of these shapes.
We also have a quiz: Who made that pipe? We show seven factory-made pipes and you have to guess who made them. A pipe is the reward for the winner.
We also have an article about some pipe-magazines, which no longer exist, some tobacco reviews and much more.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 110 (Sep. 2018)
An English summary from the magazine “RÖKRINGAR” (Smoke Rings) published by The Pipe Club of Sweden
The picture on the cover was made by the Austrian artist Franz von Defregger (1835 – 1921). This painting, showing a scene from a rural pub, is one of the best known. In the 1980s the Austrian firm Lilien Porzelain made a series of plates with motifs from Defregger’s paintings. This is the second plate in that series.
We are proud to present a new club-pipe and this time it is a pipe inspired by Popeye. It is made by Tom Eltang and in the bottom of the pipe our logo, the Viking, is engraved.
In the beginning of this year I asked Tom Eltang if I could spend a day in his workshop and follow the entire process, when he was making one of his high-grade pipes. “Of course,” Tom said, courteous as always. It became a long, but extremely interesting day and more than 250 pictures were taken. We have a full report in this issue.
Our annual meeting took place last June in the smokers’ lounge of Mellgrens Fine Tobacco in Gothenburg. We are glad to announce that the board of our club got a new member, Martin Jönsson. The meeting also had the pleasure to welcome the cartoonist Joakim Lindengren, who is a long-time member of our club. Joakim told us about his work in general and especially about his most famous figure, Kapten Stofil. His talk was very much appreciated by the audience and as a thank you he got a pipe from our president. Of course, it was a straight pipe as Kapten Stofil always claims: “Straight pipes smoke best!”
Every year one of our local pipe-clubs arranges a swim competition – you must swim as long as possible with a pipe lit in your mouth. We have some pictures from that event.
A new book about Danish pipemakers was released earlier this month. The title is THE PIPE – A FUNCTIONAL WORK OF ART and it is a coffee-table book of 312 pages with a lot of beautiful pictures. We show a few of the pages in this book.
Skagerack is a special pipe, designed by Victor Söderberg and made by the Swedish pipemaker Henrik Rydberg. It was only made in eight numbered copies and we can show you this exclusive pipe.
One of our board members, Torbjörn Lindén, has been in Chicago and of course he took the opportunity to visit Iwan Ries’s Pipe Shop there. In a richly illustrated article he tells us about this visit.
We also have reviews of some tobaccos and some letters from our readers.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 109 (May 2018)
The pipe on the cover was made by Anne Julie and was put there as an honor to her, as she was elected as Pipeman of the year, or in this case Pipewoman of the year. Since 1984, this title has been awarded annually to someone by the Nordic Smokers` Guild and Anne Julie was the first woman ever to get the title. As “the Grand old Lady of Danish pipemaking”, she is certainly worth it. We tell you more about her in this issue.
A hotel in Stockholm, Victory Hotel, has an important collection of antique pipes and Johan Hedborg has visited the hotel and catalogued the collection for them. He shows us some of the most interesting pieces found there.
Mikael Johansson is a very skilled tobacco blender and he has found the original recipe for Three Nuns tobacco. In the article he tells us how he is making his own version of this famous mixture. We can assure that it tastes deliciously.
To make a pipe by yourself is a dream to many pipesmokers. Patrik Eng has tried to do so and tells us about his experiences in a richly illustrated article.
Unfortunately, two old friends have passed away in the beginning of this year, the pipemaker Lars Ivarsson and the former president of the Nordic Smokers’ Guild Leif Slot. Both will be missed a lot, not only by friends in Scandinavia, but by pipe enthusiast all over the world.
As usual the Danish Championship took place last March. We are happy to tell that a member of our club, Greger Risberg, came in 5thplace, the next best result ever. And we are also proud that one of our two teams came on the 3rdplace, which has never happened before. More about this event inside this magazine.
A new tobacconists’ store has opened in Gothenburg and we show you some pictures of the shop and the smokers’ lounge found there.
Jørgen Berg Christiansen is a pipemaker in Jyllinge, Denmark, who has been making pipes for about five years. We have visited him and show you some pictures from his workshop and, of course, some of his pipes.
As usual we have an extract from an old detective store, that was written already in 1918, reviews of some tobaccos and much more.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 108 (Feb. 2018)
The pipe-smoking gentleman on the cover is not the head of a pipe, but an ink-pot. It was made from porcelain and the reason for putting it here is an article about porcelain-pipes in this issue.
We have a very talented tobacco-blender in our club and he tells us about how you, without a lot of equipment, can make your own Cavendish.
Torsten Erasmie is an artist, who is best known for his paintings from the eastern coast of the south Sweden, a region with a fascinating nature called Österlen. But he has also been working a lot in other places in Europe, like Bretagne in France, his favorite place. His paintings are found in galleries all over the world. But he has also made some still life paintings and in many of them his beloved pipes are a part of the motif and we are happy to be able to show some of them.
Stanwell has for a long time had too many shapes and series, and it has been a great problem to store them all. So, for a long time they have tried to reduce the number of shapes as well as series. In this issue we present the shapes and series that are now in production.
We always get a lot of questions about how to restore an old, well-used pipe. Because of that we have an extensive article that tells you every step in the process.
As usual we have an excerpt from an old detective story (published 1899-1900) and we also have reviews of some tobaccos.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 106 (Sept. 2017)
The gentleman in the photograph on the cover is the sculpture Jean-Pierre Dantan (1800-1869), who designed a lot of clay pipes for the French company Gambier. The pipe is a self-portrait (not very like the photograph, I must say) and this rare pipe is a treasure for all collectors of clay pipes. Johan Hedborg tells us more about him and shows another pipe designed by him, picturing the author and politician Victor Hugo (1800-1885).
Erik Nørding is a grand old man of Danish pipe-making. He is now 78 years old, but still as active as ever. He has been making pipes for his entire adult life, not only in Denmark but also in England, where he for some years was making meerschaum-pipes on the Isle of Man. We tell you more about him and his family business, in which his son Knud now will be involved.
We are proud to tell that Erik has taken the assignment to make the Pipe of the Year 2017 for our club. It is presented in this issue and can be ordered by all members of our club.
Unfortunately, we have to bring the news that the pipemaker Poul Ilsted died on the 21s of May. Poul was extremely talented and was known as the Facet Master, as most of his pipes were just facetted. He was also a dear friend and we really miss him a lot.
The Pipe Club of Stockholm was founded in 2012 and has regular meetings in the smoking lounge of Cigarrummet, a pipe-shop in the very center of our capital. More information about the activities in this club are found in this issue.
A new member of our club tells us about his first year as a pipe-smoker and shows some pipes he has made from different kinds of wood.
Henrik Boustedt is the latest new pipemaker here in Sweden. We bring you an extensive presentation of him and his work.
We also have an extract from an old detective story, published in 1968, and reviews of some tobaccos.
An English summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 105 (May 2017)
The pipe on the cover was made by Vollmer & Nilsson in Malmö. More beautiful pipes from these skillful pipemakers are shown in this issue.
We also have the honor to present a new Swedish pipemaker. His name is Lars Svahn and he is living on the island of Gotland. Lars has two times won our competition for amateur pipemakers, but now he has taken the step to sell his pipes on the Internet (www.svahnpipes.com). We tell you about him and show some of his pipes.
One of our local pipe-clubs has built a new, comfortable smokers’ lounge. We show pictures from it and from the grand inauguration.
We also show pictures and tell you about an old clay pipe, a caricature of the French king Louis Philippe, who reigned from 1830 until 1848.
The Danish Championship takes place in March every year and a review and some pictures are found in this issue.
We are sorry to tell you that the pipemaker Bjørn Thurmann passed away at the end of last year. He has been active in the pipe business all his life and, besides making pipes, he in his youth worked abroad for several years. Among others he worked for Dunhills in London and Iwan Ries in Chicago. In 2005 he moved from Copenhagen, where he had lived all his life, to a little village called Svaneke on the island of Bornholm. There he established a shop and a workshop in an 100 years old house. He himself called it a paradise and when we visited him, we found that it was no exaggeration. It is sad that Bjørn was not allowed to enjoy his paradise for much longer.
We also have an extract from an old Swedish detective story written in1924, some tobacco reviews, letters from our readers and a lot of other things.
An English Summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 104 (Feb. 2017)
In the last issue we told you about a visit to the MacBaren Tobacco Factory, situated in Svendborg, a town in the island of Funen. This factory was founded in 1826 by Svend Bønnelycke, but in 1876 it was sold to Harald Halberg and has been in the Halberg family ever since. This time we will concentrate on the long and interesting history of that factory, a history that also has been very dramatic.
While visiting the island of Funen and the MacBaren factory we also took the opportunity to visit a long-time friend and a prominent collector of pipes, Jonas Forss. Jonas is Swedish but has lived in Denmark for more than 35 years. We show you some pictures from his big collection of pipes.
Every year our club has a pipe auction, held in the workshop of Vollmer & Nilsson in Malmö. We tell you all about it and show some pictures from the event.
We also have the honor to show all contributions to our competition for amateur pipemakers.
The European Championship last year took place in Nitra in Slovakia. Two of our members took part in the competition and tell us all about it.
Another of our members, Johan Hedborg, has been to Liège in Belgium and joined a meeting in the local pipe-club there. We get a full report from that meeting.
We also have an extract from a pipe-smoking related book and some reviews about tobaccos.
An English Summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
Rökringar (Smoke Rings) no. 103 (Nov. 2016)
This is the last issue of Rökringar in 2016, the year when our club celebrated its 25-years-anniversary. In the earlier issues this year, we have told about what has happened during all those years and the final part is found here. We have had the privilege to have some very colorful personalities in our club and this time we tell you about a few of them, members who unfortunately now have passed away. One of them is of course the pipemaker Bo Nordh.
Today the majority of all pipe tobacco is produced in Denmark, in fact as much as 80% globally. The center for this production is the island of Funen, where two big factories are situated. Earlier we have told about Orlik Tobacco Company (owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group) and this time we have visited the MacBaren factory. MacBaren is a family owned company and the fifth generation of the Halberg family is now leading the company.
For a new pipemaker it is always hard to decide how much to take for his or her pipes. One of our young pipemakers, Mathias Lundell, is speculation about. If you sell your pipes too cheap in the beginning it is hard later to raise the prices, and if you take too much you will not sell any pipes. A hard decision to take. We also show some of Mathias’ pipes.
As you probably know, the Stanwell pipes nowadays are made in Italy. But they have a headquarter in Assens in the island of Funen and we have visited that. The final inspection of the pipes, polishing and distribution are made from there. This was our first meeting with Hans Greibe Hansen, the new managing director of Stanwell, who got the job about a year ago. We show you pictures of the Pipe of the Year 2017, designed by Poul Winsløw and some other beautiful pipes.
Growing and blending tobacco is not very common in our country, but a man called Mikael Johansson has been very successful about that. We tell you about that and show some pictures from his growing.
The Danish Pipeshop has moved into new, much larger premises. The new shop is situated just a few hundred meters away from Rådhusplatsen, the very center of Copenhagen. The inauguration took place on the 1st of October and a lot of people from all over the world took part in it. What the visitors saw was a fantastic shop, a real dream for a pipesmoker. And it was long ago that we saw so many pipemakers gathered in the same place. We have a lot of pictures from that event.
Our pipe making contest for amateurs is now over and the winner has been elected. His name is Lars Svahn and the winning pipe is shown on the cover. We will bring more pictures of the winning pipes and of the other contributions to the competition in the next issue.
We also have extracts from some old detective stories in which pipesmoking plays a significant part, pictures of a very special pipe made in 1914, reviews of tobaccos and much more.
An English Summary of the content is sent to all foreign members.
