Abe Herbaugh: Smooth Peewit with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

American artisan Abe Herbaugh has become one of the United States' most celebrated carvers, having cultivated an aesthetic primarily rooted in the classical Danish school, often complete with sophisticated, organic detail in his signature style. Given Abe's appreciation for the Danish style, it feels natural that he's made the Peewit one of his most oft-produced shapes, with this particular piece being a good example. The progenitor of this profile is none other than Sixten Ivarsson, the father of both the Danish school of pipe design and the modern artisan pipe making movement. Herbaugh has taken this shape and the inspiration from Sixten's works and made the Peewit his own, here with an appreciable degree of asymmetry. The transition here is wide and slightly acute, and it pairs the bowl to an extremely brief shank that tapers rapidly to a trim band of black vulcanite, marking the stummel's marriage to a stretch of bamboo comprising three knuckles of the dense grass. On both the right and the left side of the bamboo, a pair of divots near the fore and aft, respectively, are extended into both the stummel and the stem, melding the natural and the manmade with understated ease. At the end of the shank extension, the bamboo is capped by a sleek and stylized stem of black vulcanite, complete with an extended metal tenon to reinforce its fitment and strengthen the bamboo accent. This stem flares at its base, expanding into a bulbous dome that curves to find an extremely trim and sharp expansion ring just before dipping into the bit, matching the rhythm of the bamboo and further underscoring the rich, organic details of this piece. The slender shaping of the aft side, coupled with the shank and stem arrangement's lengthy stretch upward and outward, highlights the rotundity and substance of the bowl while balancing its presence admirably. Said bowl stands on a pronounced, rounded heel that dips below the transition, and it supports plump walls that flare out to a domed rim and urge forward dynamically. The shape of the bowl is reminiscent of the Acorn, and it offers a comfortable, soft feel in hand, with the right flank rising higher than the left and affording the bowl an understated, expressive asymmetry. Dressed in a warm, contrast-rich stain, the stummel offers a timeless palette and showcases handsome grain across the bowl, with flickering flame framing the walls and a field of birdseye across the rim.