Tom Eltang: Rusticated Natural Poker with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

With over 40 years of pipe-making experience, Tom Eltang is a master of the craft, and his work is considered by many to be the high-water mark from which all other pipes are judged. Even with his esteemed reputation, Eltang continues to produce pipes at a mind-boggling rate and always strives to fashion the perfect piece. This Poker is one of Eltang's signature shapes, and it's as minimalist and utilitarian as one would expect from the Danish artisan. At the fore, a tall, slender bowl rises from a flat, sure-sitting heel and cants ever-so-slightly forward, while out back, a trim shank glides outward toward a demure saddle stem of jet-black vulcanite. The shank is extended here with two knuckles of warm bamboo, with the dense grass' pronounced nodes equally spaced between the transition and the shoulders of the mouthpiece, creating a sense of visual harmony among all aspects of the pipe. It's finished in Eltang's pebbly rustication and left free of any stain, allowing the natural color of the briar to shine and accrue the tans, golds, and browns of patina with time and use.