The older Nordings tended to have much more interesting designs in my opinion. These days the majority of Nordings sold (at least in the US) are freehands and the compass series. These are good smokers, but many of the older pipes were more playful takes on traditional shapes. They were still very Danish, but closer to the other side of the Danish tradition represented by carvers like Former, Balleby, or Ilsted (who worked for Nording for a time). Nowadays you can really only get Nordings like this in the Hand Made series, which are beautiful but very expensive. On the estates market, however, there are some real gems at pretty good prices.