Smooth Billiard with Vulcanite Ribbons (2025) Tobacco Pipe

It's very seldom that we see a smooth iteration of the Billiard from Adam Davidson, and especially a straight one, with this being the first new smooth example of the chart standard that we've ever received from him. This take on the shape features a soft heel that curves naturally into the fore wall of the bowl, with this subtle curvature being maintained through its travel to the rim. What results is a bowl with a slight taper toward its peak and an understated plumpness about its midsection that's both comfortable and shapely. The rim itself displays an eye-catching double-chamfer, slightly at the outside and more sharply toward the chamber, which enhances the effect of the walls' curves while making packing and retaining tobacco easier. The back wall features a slightly more pronounced curve as it reaches up from the transition, pulling some of the visual weight a bit more toward the aft and balancing the look of the pipe well.

From out of the transition, the shank pushes out with a subdued bit of diminution at its top line, its relatively reserved length meeting an accent unlike anything we've encountered before. Here, Adam has taken ribbons of vulcanite and stabilized them in resin, merging it with the briar to form a military mount that merges the stummel with a sleek, expansion-ringed stem. The vulcanite to make this accent was taken directly from the excess material turned away from the rod-stock that Davidson used to craft the stem, its many curls and spirals carved away from the whole slowly and meticulously, and now paired to another whole in two distinct forms. The concept is impressive, and its execution is no less striking, accenting a pipe with itself, essentially, and showcasing a familiar medium in a way wholly unfamiliar to the general smoking public. For an accent as enthralling as this, Adam has yet dressed it in a subdued, Bruyere-esque stain whose slightly ruddier undertones richly contrast the stark tones of the stem and accent. This stain reveals flickering streaks of flame grain surrounding the walls of the bowl, with dense swirls of birdseye peppering the rim, providing no shortage of visual appeal no matter where you look.