Smooth Volcano (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."

Cavicchi found and extracted tight, straight flame grain for this Volcano that stands tall around the walls of the bowl and even manages to find its way up the sides of the square shank, meeting the top and bottom ridgelines at perpendicular angles. The bowl is a relatively typical cone for its shape with a wide heel adorned with swirling birdseye, and all of the grain is highlighted with a smooth finish and honey-blonde stain for easy appreciation. The shank upturns into a square-shouldered saddle stem of black acrylic that bends dramatically just after the shoulders on its way back to the bit. Brightly colored and defined by crisp ridgelines, this is a great work of Cavicchi's that is sure to satisfy fans and newcomers to his work alike.