Sandblasted Long Almond (2025) Tobacco Pipe

Adam Davidson's signature Almond shape is most often seen in chubbier, more abbreviated forms that emphasize the stummel's tightly packed surface area in profile. In contrast, this vision of the shape instead lengthens the shank, as if Adam had stretched out the briar like an archer drawing his bowstring. Both achieve a similar effect, highlighting the impressive surface area of the stummel in profile while simultaneously emphasizing the shape's Opera-like compression from the flanks. Here, this compression is most striking at the shank, which pushes out from a slightly raised transition, the top and underside framed by a pair of crisp ridges that guide the shape into a set of slight curves at the end. This serves to subtly enhance the verticality of the shank, which, paired with a concurrent flare from the flanks, forms the face into a plump almond shape whose top edge curves toward the bowl. Though this shaping element does well to connect the pipe to its eponymous nut, it also creates the illusion of an effervescent curve through the shank's entire length, a suggestion redoubled by the stem's understated downturn at the bit.

The ridges lining the shank maintain their sharpness as they push through the transition and into the bowl, the topmost flowing up the back wall and splitting at the rim to encircle its very slightly inflated surface area, which, appropriately, is almond-shaped. The overall shape of the bowl is deceptively Acorn-like in silhouette, with a rounded spur descending beneath its flaring growth toward the rim, complete with a touch of rounding near its terminus. However, rather than an Acorn, the bowl is actually most reminiscent of an almond shell, perhaps one that's been cracked, given the sharper top line at the rim, but an almond shell nonetheless, further underscoring the depth of the inspiration for this form. Dressed in a soft black sandblast, the briar showcases rippling bands of ring grain flowing down the walls of the bowl, as radiating arcs emanate down the shank. The stem matches the aesthetic well with its inky vulcanite, and its trim expansion ring nicely complements the shank's own flare, the entire composition a testament to Davidson's playfully inventive style that's yet tempered by his traditional palette.