Sandblasted Strawberry Wood Standing Blowfish Tobacco Pipe

We typically think of the Blowfish as a means for artisan pipemakers to show off the birdseye flanks of a particularly choice cross-cut piece of briar, but here Chris Askwith has taken a very different approach. Rendered in strawberry wood, the centerpiece here is this particular medium's tendency to produce dense, exceptionally wild growth rings, which we indeed find in clear evidence not just on the paneled flanks, but all about the bowl and broad, meaty shank.

The accent is curious; I'll admit to not being able to identify the species of hardwood he's employed, stained in a rich, smoky contrast, but it shows both a smooth, even grain and interspersed coarser, oak-like features - noted primarily because at first glance they may be mistaken for fissures.

- Eric N. Squires