Brown Smooth Volcano 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 Volcano from Cavicchi is substantial in the hand with its rounded, wide heel from which the flame grain-adorned walls stretch to a rim of birdseye. The slope of the walls is substantial to match the shape without being excessive, and the shank bends upward from the aft of the bowl to showcase further grain on its way to meeting the shoulders of the saddle stem. The stem is black acrylic and relatively brief before it ends in a wide, flat bit. Though the heel and bowl lack the ridgeline typical of a Volcano, Cavicchi's interpretation of the shape is handsome and unique in its execution.