Claudio Cavicchi: Smooth Freehand (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. His over 50 years of experience ensures that his pipes are not only beautiful, but expertly shaped and precisely drilled, and all of these are the case with this Freehand. A stylistic fusion of the bent Dublin, Pickaxe, and Skater shapes, this Freehand boasts a remarkably dynamic silhouette, its shank and stem poised in an impressively vertical arc. This curve poises the pipe for comfortable smoking, comprising a steeply angled shank that flares to meet a saddle of black acrylic: the pair lifting out of a tightly-knit transition. Up front, the bowl stands as the center of the composition's visual weight, its walls supported by an extended heel that curls toward the aft and terminates in a sharp spur just past the transition. The walls flare boldly as they rise to a vast, domed rim, here finished in a vibrant, ruby-tinged stain usually seen on pipes with Cavicchi's Perla grade. Dressed in one of Cavicchi's iconic honey-blonde stains, this pipe has earned the carver's "CCCC" grade, and it showcases a wealth of handsome grain, with flame surrounding the bowl and striated liberally by visible growth rings: all while the expansive rim displays a vast ocean of birdseye.