Peter Heding: Smooth Shark (Gold) Tobacco Pipe

When the shark is wrangled into a quotable metaphor, it's usually something to do with a need to never stop moving. It's one of the things that makes them seem so potent, and thus, all the more frightening. A bear, at least, will hibernate; a lion or tiger turned man-eater may snatch your neighbor, but afterwords you can at least expect that it will probably take a nap. The shark (or at least the vast majority of species of shark), however, is basically a streamlined fuselage of muscle with an inscrutable expression and a lot of sharp business on one end that never stops.

So if you're a pipemaker who's going to make a shape named the Shark, it stands to reason that said shape should A) possess a sense of smooth power, B) still nonetheless have some sharpness somewhere, and C) appear as if it were capable of constant motion. Heding's covered all three, and deftly: the subtly rounded taper of the bowl and deep, smoothly muscular profile of the transition; the crisp points of the fore and the shank-flare; the definite sense of a shape made to move forward, and a degree of bend that strikes a balance which could be interpreted either as in-motion itself, or as something beginning to bundle with energy for an even faster burst.

- Eric N. Squires