American Estates: Todd Johnson Sandblasted Blowfish with Bakelite (Hoplite) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

Todd Johnson's impressive experience with strikingly complex shapes permits him to render the what-has-become classic Blowfish in a manner appearing effortless, bringing all the lines and ridges, panels and domes of the shape together with a professional acumen that belies its complexity. It's a shape particularly difficult to realize in a sandblasted finish, because the Blowfish depends on the crisp demarcation of elements, a character that is generally softened by sandblasting. It takes particularly deft skills to make a sandblasted pipe in this shape and with this elevated level of precision.

The blast itself is particularly pleasant in texture, deep and defined and offering a surface that's difficult to let go of. The broad curvature of the left side is balanced by the paneled sections adjacent to the center ridgeline, which help introduce the more domed aspect of the right side. The vertically inclined shank expands dramatically from the soft transition to the stylized end-of-shank, curved in cross section in a broad oval over the top, with two angled panels subtly carrying the lower ridgeline across the heel and up to the far side of the rim. The natural feel of this pipe in hand provides a character of eloquent organicism combined with subtle structure, each element of the stummel elegantly contrasted by the unexpected and modernist saddle mouthpiece in a variegated and visually commanding teal hue.