Old Dominion: Shenandoah Tobacco Pipe

Old Dominion pipes began with a nearly extinct heirloom Indian corn which brothers Bob and Bill Savage, and Laurel, the latter's wife, found to produce a particularly sweet, unique cornmeal. Bringing this breed back from the brink, and finding a healthy demand for it from amateur cooks and professional chefs alike, they also soon found themselves with a lot of large, colorful cobs piling up as well. Turning up archeological evidence that their Pungo Creek Mills farmland had been the site of a clay and cob pipe making operation dating back to the colonial period, an answer as to what to do with all these distinctive corn cobs presented itself.

That answer, of course, was to hand-craft them into cob pipes fitted with bamboo cane stems — pipes just like those the planters who'd come before them had enjoyed over two centuries ago.

The Shenandoah model is a medium-sized cob by Old Dominion, featuring a a plump bowl with stout insulating walls and a stable sitting capacity. It also sports one of the warmer styles of finishes from the maker as well, a sort of honey-blonde that really suits the cob's natural texture.

Note: All measurements listed are approximate, as there will be some variation from individual pipe to individual pipe.