Former: Smooth Calabash Tobacco Pipe

I've long viewed Former pipes as being in the same camp as Jess Chonowitsch pipes; by this I mean the main thing is design. Grain will be gorgeous and engineering excellent, and all that, and the shape, more often than not, will be Danish classic rather than freehand — but even if it is something as simple as a straight Apple, it will be as good as a Danish straight Apple can get.

Which isn't to say that either of them can't do the same with a more freehand design. They just don't do it quite as often. Well here is one of those less-often sorts from Former: a long stroke of a freehand Calabash, smooth, lifting, and gently S-curving from rim to bit. Its grain is gorgeous, its engineering is excellent, but what sets it apart more than anything is, simply, that masterful flow and balance of design, realized in briar and vulcanite.

- Eric N. Squires