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Brand Dating Guides
Nørding has no date code. The early SON stamp is the one clear window; the rest is wide.
Updated 2026-10-16
Welcome. If your pipe is stamped Nørding, Nording or SON, this guide is for you.
Erik Nørding was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a blacksmith at 15 and later trained as an engineer.
He came to pipes through machines, not through wood.
Nørding pipes carry no date code that we know of. So most pipes get a wide window.
Each rule below has a rank: high, medium or low. Read the rank before you trust a window.
Early 1960s to mid 1960s
A Copenhagen pipe repairman named Skovbo asked Erik to build pipe making machines.
When the machines were ready, Skovbo could not pay. So the two men started a pipe firm together.
Their first pipes carried the name SON. It stands for Skovbo og Nørding, which means Skovbo and Nørding.
Each partner borrowed 5,500 dollars to rent a room and buy briar.
Soon Skovbo wanted to leave. By their agreement, Erik kept the company and paid Skovbo over five years.
A collector's photo shows an early 1960s SON D grade with a horn shank extension.
SON lines shown on Pipedia include Sanblast and SON Pradikat.
Mid 1960s to today
Erik kept the SON name for only a year or two. Then he renamed the firm Nørding, in the mid 1960s.
He said he chose his own name because nobody could ever take it away from him.
At first the firm made freehands only. They were graded A, B, C and D, with Extra as the top grade.
Later an F grade was added, cheaper than A. We hold no year for the F grade.
The Danish freehand boom of the 1970s and early 1980s was the peak. The firm then had 52 workers.
In an interview from about 2001, there were 6 pipe makers and about 15,000 pipes a year.
Briar came mainly from Corsica and Greece.
First look for SON. A SON stamp points to the partnership years in the early to mid 1960s.
Next look for the Nørding name, in script or block letters. It points to the mid 1960s or later.
Then read the grade. Old grades are letters: F, A, B, C, D and Extra.
Grades do not date a pipe. The same letters ran for many years.
High grades named on Pipedia include the Nørding 18 and the Nørding 20, both with sterling mounts.
Line names shown include Nord-Coat, AS, FS and the Hunting Series. Pipedia gives no years for them.
Aalbørg and Eriksen are Nørding seconds. Sorn was also made by Nørding.
In the interview, freehands were the cheapest line. A machine roughed them out, then hands shaped them on sanding discs.
Freehands had vulcanite stems. Handmades had acrylic stems and better grain.
About 300 Handmades were made each month at the time of the interview.
The Hunting Series is a pipe with a hunting theme, different every year.
A list of the yearly motifs would date these pipes well. We do not hold that list yet.
No Nørding shape chart is known to us. The firm names pipes mainly by grade and line.
The numbers below come from single restored pipes and one dealer's titles. Each rests on one source only.
Seen so far: 82 Dublin with a rectangular shank, 116 Dublin, 125 oval shank billiard (Nord-Coat).
Also: 206 bent brandy, 210 brandy and 212 egg, all Nord-Coat; 351 bulldog and 502 brandy, both Valhalla.
Also: 503 army mount billiard.
Take care: in dealer titles, the numbers 1 to 5 and 11 to 20 are grades, not shapes.
A grade letter or grade number is not a year. Do not date a Nørding by its grade.
A small number on the shank may be a grade, not a shape. Check before you name the shape.
Aalbørg and Eriksen pipes are seconds. Do not sell them as full Nørding grades.
Pipe counts differ by era: about 15,000 a year in the interview, about 50,000 in a later Pipedia line.
A Nørding name with no SON mark only says the mid 1960s or later. That window is honest but wide.
Each row comes from our Nørding cabinet. There is no date code, so most windows are wide.
SON stamp (Skovbo og Nørding)
Pipedia says early 1960s to mid 1960s. So both years are only about right.
The name NØRDING or NORDING
Starts from the mid 1960s rename, in Erik's own words. So 1964 is only about right.
Aalbørg or Eriksen (Nørding seconds)
We hold no years for the seconds. This is only the window of the Nørding name.
What We Don't Know Yet
Published deliberately. If you hold the catalogue, hallmarked example, or period document that closes one of these gaps, write to us — corrections are credited. Every open question across the encyclopedia is gathered on the Open Questions page.
Changelog
Sources
Holding a Nørdingyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Nørding in the Shop