Yesterday was the annual Seattle Pipe Club Dinner and Auction. It once again proved itself to be the finest gentleman's event anywhere. I'll post details about the dinner at a future date, but today would like to talk about my wonderful new Senlar pipe.

The pipe was donated to the club by our guest speaker Mr. Tony Soderman, and as luck would have it Mr. Soderman included a newspaper article about Senlar pipes and their maker Wally Larsen as I had no knowledge of the brand or maker.

It is a Canadian shape, quite large with a shank over four inches long. Deeply and well rusticated in a tree bark pattern. Quite beautiful and obviously well made, I look forward to seeing how it smokes.

I did search out Senlar Pipes on Pipedia today, hoping for more information than could be gleaned from the newspaper article, but alas apparently my ignorance of Senlar is fairly widespread as there was virtually no information there. In an attempt to help fill this lack of knowledge I gathered some information from the article and placed it into Pipedia. I'm reprinting it here:

Senlar Pipes were made in Minnesota by pipe maker Wally Larsen who inverted his last name LAR SEN to come up with SEN LAR. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press nicknamed Larsen "The Great Dane Of The Pipe World" in 1973. Larsen's pipes were made in the basement of his Minnetonka home, with pipes selling in 1973 for as much as $75. Larsen learned the pipe making craft in the 1940's when an established pipe maker moved into the home next door. After observing this craftsman work for three years Larsen decided to make a pipe for himself. That first pipe got him some attention from fellow smokers and he sold his next nine before being able to keep another for himself.

Larsen sought to make Senlar pipes "Look like a tree." Which he accomplished by using a whirling drill to carve a distinctive bark like finish on the pipe. It is a finish seen on most Senlars and Larsen regarded it as a sort of trademark.