Claudio Cavicchi: Smooth Blowfish with Olivewood (CCCC) Tobacco Pipe

Claudio Cavicchi is truly a master of his craft, and his ability to coax the best possible grain out of every piece of briar will always astound me. Originally a farmer, Claudio was first inspired to make pipes after an order he placed for one with his local tobacconist took many months to fill. What resulted was not only a pipe almost exactly like the one Cavicchi was looking for, but a passion that has lasted nearly five decades, his first piece made in 1974. A world-champion slow-smoker with three titles under his belt, Claudio Cavicchi relentlessly seeks perfection in every pipe that he crafts, not only able to read grain exceptionally well, but able to engineer pipes that smoke magnificently. The Blowfish is a rarely seen design from Claudio Cavicchi, making the modern classic profile an extremely desirable one from the Italian artisan. The disc-shaped panels on either flank are framed by crisp, wrapping ridgelines, which form yet another facet from the rim down the fore, through the heel and up the back of the bowl. That geometric aesthetic continues through the paneled shank, which rises ever-so-slightly from the bowl and is topped by an abbreviated, jet-black mouthpiece. A band of olivewood accents the junction to this stem, and it highlights the structural disparity between both forms, the black acrylic saddle's sleekness contrasted by the rigidity of the square-shaped shank. Dressed in one of Cavicchi's iconic honey-blonde finishes and graded four C's out of five, this pipe showcases a fully cross-grain-oriented grain structure, with a wealth of birdseye across the flanks: something seldom seen from Cavicchi.