David Huber: Sandblasted Long Shank Bent Apple (16/24) Tobacco Pipe

From hand carving and filing briar blocks in his home over ten years ago to studying under the likes of master carvers Tom Eltang, Jeff Gracik, Hans "Former" Nielsen, and Nanna Ivarsson, David Huber has established himself as a premier artisan pipe maker — each of his pieces meticulously crafted by hand and always imbued with the utmost precision, detail, and quality. He often challenges the boundaries of pipe design, and Huber's portfolio impresses with a vast array of creative designs, often honoring iconic carvers that came before him while also showcasing his own personal stylistic acumen.

This style of bent Apple in particular pays homage to the late Lars Ivarsson's signature aesthetic. Ivarsson was especially renowned for such long-shank designs, often fitted to voluptuous bowls. Huber presents his own interpretation of Ivarssonian shaping with this piece, revealing a long shank that steadily tapers toward the transition before erupting into a bulbous bowl. Huber's creativity shines through in how he shaped this bowl: Many similar renditions would poise the bowl at a slight forward cant, continuing the forward-urging momentum initiated by the shank's slight curve. Instead, Huber has angled the rim and the bowl's aft wall to create the illusion that the bowl is canted back toward the stem. Such a design cue actually adds further dynamism to the composition — the shape seeming to speed so strongly that the bowl is pushed back by the implied momentum. That aspect creates a sleek design that's juxtaposed against the pipe's overall muscularity, and it's all dressed in a conservative sandblast accented by the smooth rim and shank end, with the hand-cut stem's expansion ring echoing the shank face and cohering the mouthpiece to the rest of composition.