Freestyle from Henryk Worobiec

I got this pipe in Poland at a World Championship held in Poznan. I was admiring Henryk’s pipes and singing the praises of the various pipes I picked up and held in my hands. The workmanship was excellent and the forms of his pipes were exciting and a little different to those that I was used to. Henryk didn’t speak much English but had a very pretty assistant that did. Through her, I congratulated Henryk on his work and then left the table. What I didn’t know was that a Russian buyer had been standing behind me and he bought every one of the pipes that I had looked at and praised. Ten or eleven pieces in all and he didn’t argue over the price.

On returning to the area where Henryk had his display, the young lady assistant came up to me and invited me back to the table.

Delighted that he had sold a number of his pipes thanks to my appreciation, he offered me the chance to take a pipe of my own choosing at a greatly reduced price. And so it was, that I became the proud owner of this magnificent example of Henryk’s handiwork. Short, fat and straight grained, reminiscent of a lovat, this has to be one of my favourite freestyles in my collection. The pipe is cut from a plateau block of high quality briar, decorated with a silver ring (925 hallmarked) and has an acrylic mouthpiece.

A little footnote here. It was also Henryk that produced the pipes for the championship. More on that at a later date.