Adam Davidson: Smooth Blowfish with Japanese Boxwood (Collaboration with H. Tokutomi) Tobacco Pipe

Those familiar with the Blowfish shapes of Hiroyuki Tokutomi will likely recognize this form; then again, those familiar with the Blowfish shape as we know it today at all should already be familiar Tokutomi's approach. Toku is the one of the progenitors of the modern interpretation of the shape, which is why one can imagine how daunting it must have been when, after executing the first "rough" shaping of this pipe, the Japanese master handed the piece to Adam Davidson (who was visiting him in his workshop at the time), to refine the shape himself. Imbuing the left flank's surrounding ridge with a slight pinch, the bowl's convex cheek comes into crisp relief, framed by cross-grain and serving to asymmetrically balance the vast swathes of plateau living at the right flank. A lively sweep of the stuff rides from the shank end through the transition, mirroring the clean-lined geometry of the left flank, and leading the eye to an accent of Japanese boxwood from Toku's own stock. Stellar work from two powerhouse carvers.