David Huber: Smooth Copper Head (0720) Tobacco Pipe

Like his Razor Egg renditions, David Huber's Copper Head design often makes use of an incredibly pinched shank, rendering the cross section a slender, vertical oval. The Copper Head, however, features a deeper, more sinuous bend for balanced jaw-hanging capabilities. This particular rendition, while emulating the look of a bent Egg in profile, displays a uniquely shaped bowl: Like the shank, it's been carved into an oval, but positioned perpendicular to the shank so as to poise the widest portion at the flanks. It makes for an especially rounded fit in hand, and David has clearly looked to this briar block's grain to inform that shaping — the bowl's fore and aft studded with birdseye, while cross grain wraps the middle around the outside. Such orientation and shaping calls to mind the Blowfish shape; however, with this piece, the bowl has been rotated 90 degrees. It's a simple change, yet one that makes for quite the striking aesthetic and in-hand difference.