I first met Olda Jirsa in 2007 while on a visit to the Czech Republic. At that time he had a pipe factory with several employees making thousands of pipes for many customers. Life took some turns and Olda needed to make some changes. Fast forward to 2013 & I was again in the Czech to visit him, but this time it was quite different. This visit was to his home in a small village a couple hours outside of Prague, no more factory. He greeted us at the door & invited us in for coffee. He explained what had happened and that life is not all about money and big business. His health had suffered due to the stress of running a factory with too many employees & too many heavy demands from customers. He decided to close the factory, rebuild his health & go back to school to study theology. Pipe making became more of a side business just to make money, but not big enough to cause the problems that he had suffered previously. He & his wife with a little bit of help from his son make all the Jirsa pipes in his home. While sitting in the kitchen area having coffee he pulled back a curtain ,& where you would think is a living room was pipe making machinery. He also has a small shed in his backyard. Being healthy, enjoying life & family is now the #1 priority & all else comes later.  Jirsa pipes had been out of the USA market for several years so we made an agreement that I would import them again & reintroduce his work to the pipe smoking community. Needless to say delivery is minimal and in 3 years I have only received about 200 pipes total and only 7 Freehand pipes.