American Estates: C. Kent Joyce Smooth Lovat with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

Coming into the craft of pipe making from a position as a pipe smoker, C. Kent Joyce crafts fine pipes out of his detached home workshop in Noble, Oklahoma. Benefiting from training at the hands of both Premal Chheda and Tyler Lane, Joyce produces pieces that embody a striking, unique aesthetic. This Lovat displays a markedly different style of carving, staying true to more classic examples of the shape while infusing it with a subtle bit of style from the Belge shape. The transition is wide, with plenty of room to drape a digit, and it gives way to a long, round shank that extends to meet a black vulcanite saddle stem. This pipe is remarkably lightweight and compact, offering a feathery presence in hand, and its smartly balanced for easy clenching and travel carry despite being a straight shape. Up front, the bowl stands on a rounded heel and grows fairly slim walls that taper slightly and offer some subtle rounding as they reach to the flat rim. Accented with a broad band of boxwood at the base of the stem, this pipe is dressed in a warm, mahogany-hued stain, nicely matching this accent and revealing a stunning expanse of dense birdseye across the left flank of the stummel.