Yeti Smooth Eskimo (396) Tobacco Pipe

Micah Cryder started pursuing pipe making while attending high school in Missoula, Montana, and today makes Yeti pipes out of Billings, Montana, working from the influences of the American school of pipe making, modern industrial design, and French Art Deco design. He is particularly known for the use of bright, colorful Bakelite stems, though he made an exception here, allowing the wonderful grain of this Eskimo to speak for itself.

As is typical of the Eskimo, the stem and shank combine to make a teardrop shape as seen from above, with the shank spreading outward from the tapered vulcanite stem. The bowl, similar to that of Rhodesian or Bulldog with its inflated rim, is barely over an inch deep. The stummel is finished smoothly with a lovely reddish stain to put plenty of emphasis on the grain — tight curlicues of birdseye decorate the top of the shank and bowl, with flame grain ringing the short walls of the bowl. At just under five and one-half inches in length and one-fifth of a pound in weight, this piece is generously proportioned for most pipe shapes, but especially the Eskimo.