Askwith: Smooth Dublin

Lively shape interpretations, alternative materials, colorful palettes, and high quality are what first comes to mind when I think of Chris Askwith's creations. Often the English carver brings these design cues to life in morta, but apparently, he couldn't pass up this exceptional piece of briar, and I don't blame him. Chris saw a straight Dublin in the grain and beautifully rendered the shape's flared bowl in such concert with the vertical striations that I see it as nothing less than straight grain. Dressed in a natural stain and smooth finish, with plateau displaying the craggy surface of what would be birdseye on the rim, I could look at this pipe a hundred times, from as many angles, and not get enough of the grain. The brilliant bowl is paired with an abbreviated shank crowned by a cumberland accent shaped to emulate the look of a military mount. A tapered stem with a standard mortise-and-tenon arrangement stretches luxuriously out back toward a fishtail bit — a classic jet-black, vulcanite aesthetic but crafted out of the hand-cut polyester Chris is partial to.