Black Sandblasted Cherrywood with Ivorite Tobacco Pipe

Claudio Cavicchi is not only a renowned pipe maker but also a renowned pipe smoker, having won the Committee International of Pipe Smokers Clubs' slow smoking world championship in 1993 by keeping three grams of tobacco lit for just over three hours and nine minutes. Cavicchi only took up pipe making full-time after a 30-year farming career, turning his first pipe when he decided to make his own Oom Paul rather than continuing to wait for delivery of one he already ordered. Cavicchi pipes are known for their superior grain, with former Pipes and tobaccos magazine editor Chuck Stanion remarking that their titular maker "can read briar as though it were a printed page."

This Cherrywood showcases Cavicchi's prowess with sandblasting, as he managed to give the bowl a very smooth and natural feel while still letting occasional flecks of ruby shine through the much darker finish that covers the rest of the stummel. The bowl is lightly rounded and Egg-like in its orientation, leaning well forward to allow the flat heel to give the piece its customary sitting ability. The top of the upturned shank flares lightly upward to keep from being merely straight, and a thin, milky ring of Ivorite finishes the stummel with a hint of elegance. The saddle stem is black acrylic, about level with the height of the rim when the piece is sitting on its heel and capped by a wide, flat bit.