Claudio Cavicchi: Smooth Elephant's Foot (CCC) 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. The Elephant's Foot is a shape that was originally made by the venerable Bo Nordh, and it is one that Italian artisan Claudio Cavicchi makes his own each time he crafts it. This particular example of the shape showcases a paneled bowl, though, rather than framing simply the flanks, or the fore and aft, this rendition opts for an octagonal paneling that imbues the entire bowl with a firm, structural rigidity, the muscular aspect of which is enhanced by the fore panel's covering of plateau: which guides the eye toward the heel's firm spur. A wide transition out back leads to a comparatively slender stretch of tapering shank that meets a sleek, straight saddle stem of black acrylic, one that slenderizes the aft side of the pipe significantly. Dressed in one of Cavicchi's iconic honey-blonde finishes and graded three C's out of five, the bowl is wrapped in dense cross grain through the flanks and across the rim, with plenty of birdseye atop and below the shank and a sizable swath of the swirling grain seen on the bowl's aft side.