Smooth Billiard with Boxwood Mount Tobacco Pipe

A famous pipe carver once stated ". it takes a true master to hand shape a billiard". At first blush, one would wonder why one of the "simplest" of shapes would be so difficult? Well, if you think about it, how often have you seen an iteration on a volcano and thought "Wow! He sure made a dog's breakfast on the transition from shank to bowl!"?. It's a bloody volcano, a semi freehand shape, there *will* be deviations, there is no true template. Now quick, you are handed a billiard. How long would it take you to notice even a small amount of "off center" of the bowl in relation to the shank? How about even a few percentage points of deviation off symmetrical of the bowl? Immediately of course. Every pipe man knows what a billiard should look like, and any misstep is immediately pounced upon. Jeff tackles the "not so simple" billiard and scores in a big way. The symmetry of the bowl is perfect, the ratios are impeccable, and the utilization of boxwood on both the mount and tenon is inspired. As a fairly nice bonus, the grain on this pipe is superlative. Jeff rocks.

--Bear Graves