Smooth Cavalier (CCCC) 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."

Flame grain brilliantly decorates the stummel walls of this Cavalier from Cavicchi, with excellent birdseye on top and bottom and a striking blonde finish that allows the grain to be observed easily. The stummel is also finished smooth to reflect light with ease, with a high gloss that makes it eminently inviting to the touch. The shank, which in true Cavalier fashion is partially attached to the bowl from the middle, is round and sharply upturned into the black acrylic saddle stem, which bends generously about halfway between the shoulders and the bit. While the grain will attract the eye immediately, Cavicchi's great work shaping and finishing the briar will make this piece an instant favorite.