The pipe on the cover was made by Love and Sara Geiger. This pipe, and a lot more, was exposed at the World Championship in Pipesmoking, which in the beginning of October took place in Estoril, Portugal. Among the other pipes was a set inspired by the Yang and Yin, figures so important in Chinese mythology and religion. That set was sold and has now found a new home in England.

Last September we were honored to take part in the opening of a new pipemaker’s workshop in Lomma, just outside the city of Malmö. Lomma is a place with a reputation when it comes to pipe-making, as Sixten Ivarsson, the most famous Scandinavian pipemaker during the last century, was born there. Lars Jönsson, the owner of the new workshop, has during the last years helped Tom Eltang to make the Sara Eltang-pipes. But hopefully Lars will now start making pipes under his own name as well. He has been working with wood for all his grown-up life, and he made the cabinet for the “7-days set”, produced for our club in 2008, so he really has a solid background. The event was attended by a lot of people and among them several pipemakers from Sweden and Denmark.

A new shop, dedicated to cigars, pipes and tobacco, has been opened and we were glad to take part in that inauguration too. The name of the shop is Cigarr & Whisky Center, a firm that for several years has been well known on the internet. But now the owner, Sven-Inge Olsson, has opened a real shop in the central part of Trelleborg.

We have also visited a guitar maker and seen his work. It is always a pleasure to meet a skilful craftsman, and Ralph Leonius indeed is. There was a lot of talk about woods, grains and stains during our visit, which made us feel really at home.

We are glad to have no less than three articles from our readers this time. Knut Hagen has been in Copenhagen, and of course he bought some pipes there, and so did Bo Rydstål. Both of them tell us about their experiences in the Danish capital and show pictures of the pipes they bought. Alf Andersson has not bought but lost a pipe, and his story is illustrated by a beautiful artwork.

As mentioned in the beginning, this year’s World Championship took place in Portugal and 12 members from our club attended. A complete list of the results can be seen on www.pipesmoking2010.com

We also have a review of the second edition of Gary B. Schrier’s interesting book Confessions of a Pipeman. And we have pictures of some news from the Stanwell pipe-factory.