Ian Fisher Smooth Bent Apple with Bamboo (2024) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

Ian Fisher was a journalist before he took up making pipes, working as a war correspondent in the Balkans, East Africa, and the Middle East. He took up cigar smoking in Africa and eventually moved on to pipes, having a transformational moment when he purchased a Dunhill in Baghdad while covering the Iraq War. After leaving The New York Times in 2017, Fisher began to pursue pipe making more seriously, studying under Grant Batson and Jeff Gracik.

A well-rounded bowl fronts this bent Apple of Ian's, framed by straight, attractive flame grain that stretches from heel to rim. A stub of briar shank backs the bowl up to a three-knuckle length of bamboo with a light upward bend, and the piece is finished with a brief, lightly bent saddle stem of vulcanite. It's a piece of relatively simple composition that manages to appear quite beautiful nonetheless, owing to Fisher's great work with the bamboo that gives the piece fascinating lines that are only accentuated by the vulcanite shoulders being perfectly in line with the shank's knuckles.