Doctor's: Smooth Bent Apple with Bamboo and Boxwood (Double Flash) Tobacco Pipe

Doctor Roman Kovalev is a man of seemingly boundless talent, having worked for 16 years as a pediatric neurologist before expanding his repertoire to include distiller, race car driver, and distributor of fine coffee making supplies to much of Russia. Not only this, but he's also a maker of fine artisan pipes, utilizing a scientific approach that sees him taking painstaking efforts to ensure construction and quality of the highest caliber. This bent Apple is an excellent example of his work and its inclusion of bamboo speaks to a very specific technique that Kovalev uses to bore through the dense grass: Rather than drilling through it with a bit, Roman instead slowly burns through his bamboo with a thin, red-hot metal rod that rotates as it pushes, sometimes taking many hours but achieving a smoother draft hole through the material.

The bamboo here is paired to a trim shank via a thin band of black vulcanite, taking on a striking curvature as it sweeps upward to meet an expansive fitment of boxwood. As it takes on its gestural arc, this length of bamboo also takes on a very slight flare, with the boxwood accent effectively continuing the natural growth of the material. Additionally, the fitment serves to maintain the bamboo's natural rhythm, flaring out to mimic the almost four knuckles that lift it skyward, and meets a smartly downturned, compact saddle stem that matches the vulcanite band at the shank. Speaking to Kovalev's incredible eye for detail, said shank end band meets the bamboo almost directly at one of its knuckles, and to accommodate this Roman has shaped it accordingly: the briar just before the band, and even part of the band itself, very subtly flaring out to meet the pale grass and organically meld the three disparate materials in this single composition.

The bowl here is everything one could want from an Apple shape, presenting with a supple plumpness that lends it a fantastic feel in hand, filling out the contours of the fingers beautifully, with enough room at the transition for part of the thumb. This is really all you need as well, given the incredible compactness of this piece, coming in at well under four and a half inches long. A sweeping, lifted heel supports the bowl, pushing outward to meet a low-set waistline seldom seen in iterations of this profile, and from here the briar takes on an arcing taper to the rim that calls to mind the Brandy without being possessed of too much diminution toward its peak. Outside of beinng immensely comfortable, this bowl acts as a beautiful canvass for the honeyed mahogany stain of the stummel, revealing wrapping flame grain throughout the bowl's circumference and a basin of birdseye at the underside.