Askwith: Sandblasted Saucer Tobacco Pipe

When Chris Askwith started smoking a pipe in 2006, he needed to restore the estate pipes he purchased. A talented silversmith, Askwith discovered that many of his tools and skills lent themselves well to making pipes. So, in 2007, Askwith pipes were born. An English artisan, Askwith draws inspiration from the English shape charts, but incorporates modern twists, most notably his detailed finishes and colorful polyester stems.

The Saucer is an outside-the-box shape, but Chris Askwith has crafted the shape several times before. However, many of Askwith's Saucers have been inspired by the Rhodesian shape, whereas this rendition bears more resemblance to the Pot shape. The thick, insulating walls curve upwards from the underside to the incredibly wide rim, creating a hand-filling bowl. Said bowl features a relatively diminutive chamber, which supports a traditional smoking experience for this atypical pipe. Out back, a low-slung, cheeked transition flows into a slim, cylindrical shank, which joins to a stem that tapers to a neat bit; the trim, arrow-straight shank-and-stem arrangement keeps the compositional weight focused on the bowl.

This pipe is dressed in a dark sandblast, which highlight rippling growth rings that dance along the bowl's walls and the shank. What really draws one's attention, though, is the rim, which features pebbly plateau that adds another layer of texture to the pipe. The dark hues of the sandblast are accompanied by a splashy stem, which features a swirling pattern of white and purple hues.