Peter Heding: Smooth Blowfish (Diamond) Tobacco Pipe

Peter Heding's Diamond designation is the Danish carver's highest and only grade, distinguishing pipes within his portfolio that display exemplary shaping and choice grain orientation alike. Marking the grade, then, is a Zirconia diamond embedded into the bottom of the shank — as seen on this Blowfish. Though having become a staple shape within artisan pipemaking, the Blowfish is a more organic Freehand compared to classic shape chart standards, and it fits in well to Heding's penchant for more non-traditional designs.

While the Blowfish can be fashioned a variety of ways, ranging in degree of asymmetry and flourishing lines, Peter's renditions often remain a touch more reserved, focusing on the defining aspects of the shape and stunning grain. This iteration is one such example: The bowl features the shape's characteristic ridgelines that demarcate the rounded flanks and match with the panels of the shank.

This piece doesn't display the oft-seen "fins" around the transition, keeping the lines conservative and simple to ensure all the focus is on the grain, which couldn't be better. The Blowfish typically necessitates an orientation that poises cross grain, and Heding has shaped this block perfectly for that — dense seas of of birdseye populating the flanks, while parallel streaks of horizontal grain cover the bowl's central panel. Slight asymmetry raises the left flank above the right and enforces the organic nature of the piece, while a honey-blonde contrast stain commends the grain to prove the Diamond grade it's received.