Rusticated Poker with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Unless a poker has either a short-throw shank and bit (or, conversely, a compositionally dominant bowl) some forward cant to the bowl is a given, in order for it to be a sitter. Tom may be a wizard pipe maker, but (as far as I know) he can't alter the physical laws of the universe in order to make a cool pipe. As you can see in the photo, this poker features a slight cant to offset a delightfully long shank and bit. I just took an exact angle reading of the bowl (trust me, Felix the Cat's "Magic Bag of Tricks" doesn't have squat on my top right drawer) and that cant is only 7.6 degrees off of vertical true. We have the effect of a 3.77" lever (if you will) upon a 1.14" base being offset by only 7.6 degrees of cant. I'll grant you that, though unknown, the weight of the shank is simply insufficient to kick the composition towards the button, if you'll grant me that Tom has added a dash of visual magic, an implication of the improbable by utilizing some amazingly tight tolerances.

--Bear Graves