David Huber: Smooth Blowfish (36/24) 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.

The Blowfish is among Huber's most-returned to designs, and he's rendered it an impressive variety of ways. This rendition, however, is among his rarest. While this version maintains the Blowfish's characteristic elements — birdseye along the flanks divided by a central panel of cross grain — it's virtually devoid of shank. Instead, the bowl's after curls up toward the rim into which the push-style stem is attached. Such shaping allows Huber to continues the bowl's wrapping curves and ridgelines through the entire piece, rather than having to terminate them at the transition to make way for a traditional shape. The curling, spiraling profile calls to mind the Nautilus design and other shell-inspired forms, while also evoking the look of one of Hiroyuki Tokutomi's Volcano designs (which Huber has also crafted), only flipped on its side to feature birdseye right and left rather than above and below. Stunning grain encapsulates the design and follows every line and facet in a beautiful contrast stain, and the hand-cut vulcanite merges beautifully with the rest of the best, the base's expansion ring angled to perfectly match the sloped aspect of the briar.