Abe Herbaugh: Sandblasted Apple with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

Apples are pretty standard, but not when made by Abe Herbaugh. This is an Apple elevated by artisan skills to a new level of Apple. Vertically, it has a compressed nature, almost Tomato-esque, with the sandblast highlighting growth rings that circle the bowl in remarkable consistency. The blast itself is remarkable as well, concise but still smooth in hand, lending the exterior just the right amount of texture for easy purchase in hand. The rim is domed in balanced consonance with the heel and flanks, lending just a touch of height more to the bowl. Its bowl is broad, while the stem is quite trim, almost invisible in profile but expanding toward the lip button longitudinally for easy comfort. Particularly remarkable, though, is the boxwood military mount. It too is domed at its end for design consistency, and leaves the shank with the most understated of expansion rings, breaking the visual flow almost subliminally for an effect that elevates the entire piece and offers wonderful, pale contrast against its backdrop of darkly stained stummel and jet-black stem.