I have concluded that Stanwell really is the best value in pipes. Granted, they have went up in price, but they're still a bargain, especially estates. Anyone else in agreement with this?

I think it's pretty hard to argue.

Stanwell's policy of keeping everything really good and stamping Stanwell on it, and selling all kinds of somehow inferior stuff under other banners, somewhat like Dunhill, really sets a benchmark in the industry. I have never seen or heard of a misdrilled, bad briar, etc Stanwell.

If I was going to purchase a factory pipe, sight unseen, and had to pick between Peterson, Savinelli, and Stanwell, as to which I thought would be most likely to be defect free, I'd choose Stanwell.

I have ten of em.
I like em all and they all get smoked.

I think I agree, although I've never had a bad Pete either. What I have had is a couple of duff Savinellis, which tend to smoke well for the first bowl and dire for anything further.

I've only got two Stanwells, so my reference is limited, but I've never had any sort of problem.

I owned several #107 Featherweights that smoked hot and wet for me.

My best pipe is a Stanwell HCA, I love it.

Stanwells are usually one of the first pipes I point new pipe smokers to for a great pipe to break in and begin with. I've never had a bad one.

The only pipes that I had a stain "issue" with were both late 90's, early 2000 vintage Petersons. About the first four times I smoked each of them I would end up with a reddish brown stain on my hands.

There are a couple of Stanwells on my wish list.

I couldn't agree more. Both estate and new, you can really find some treasures. I've got an old shape 37 which is very unique, and my new vario 186 is one of the gems of my collection.

Something is rotten in Denmark:

Just saw on SF that apparently Stanwell production is to be outsourced to parts unknown. 17 jobs will be lost as the pipes will no longer be made there:

http://www.dr.dk/Regioner/Sjaelland/Nyheder/Ringsted/2009/06/03/151111.h

The above link is in Danish (sorry!, but if you know any Swedish or even some German you should be able to get the jist of it - basically, it says that because sales have dropped so dramatically over the past years the plant is closing and the brand will be outsourced to a foreign country, and that this leaves individual high-grade carvers as the only pipe-producers in the country).

I am sure that some of the Danish guys in the other pipe forums will have more to say on this.

The first guy to leave a comment on the story, Lars, says:

Nej nej nej nej nej. Det er en tragedie!

"No, no, no, no, no. That is a tragedy!"

That flat out sucks! I have a single Stanwell, a Vario Canadian. Smokes pretty good, not fantastic, a serviceable 'yard pipe'. I have nothing against Stanwells, my interests just lie elsewhere. I feel for those craftsman's families, maybe some new independent carvers will emerge?

Wow.... I start making pipes and Stanwell goes outta the game. Talk about power.

That is really a telling link. Get em while they're hot cuz you know the new ones are gonna be shit in comparison.