Brown Smooth Rhodesian with Olivewood 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."

That ability is on grand display with this Rhodesian. Cavicchi separates the flame grain and birdseye of the bowl below and above the beadline, respectively, easily fading from one to the next as the rounded underside of the bowl cants inward to the chamber. The rim is very narrow but the bowl quite muscular overall, and the upturned shank that extends from it flares out to a generous proportion before an olivewood accent takes over. The saddle stem is made of black acrylic and is quite brief, but bends slightly on the way back to the wide bit. The smooth finish that accentuates the grain underneath is a great attraction here, as is Cavicchi's use of olivewood and immaculate shaping of the stummel.