Chris Asteriou: Smooth Calabash with Curly Birch Tobacco Pipe

Chris Asteriou, a talented carver from Greece, has a broad creative range, passionate attention to detail, and the ability to put together a really nice Calabash design — a shape that he fashions rarely compared to his iconic renditions of classic pipe-chart standards and organic, Danish-inspired designs. The design, of course, is based on pipes made from calabash guards, the insides hollowed out to create a large secondary chamber for smoke to cool and dry before entering the stem. This exquisite rendition is made from briar, with an expansive stummel that is hollowed in the same fashion and fitted with a removable cap-and-chamber assembly.

The removable cap, in this case, comprises a broad, domed rim of curly birch, the natural grain patterns quite unique, lined by a briar chamber stained a dark mahogany at the rim. The rest of the stummel, save a light accent at the shank end, wears a gleamingly smooth honey-blond finish that puts the striking cross grain on full display, with tight striations running across the flanks and up the shank and dense birdseye on the fore and aft aspects. It's matched to a willowy saddle stem of hand-shaped vulcanite, balancing the piece and bending downward to support a comfortable smoking posture.