Smooth Calabash with Boxwood (16) Tobacco Pipe

Given that Li only began making pipes five years ago, and only went full-time three years ago, this is an impressive design to tackle. And I'm impressed at the way he pulled it off. There's a lot going on here that could have gone wrong; the precision of fit and proportions for the boxwood cap and shank accent, getting the polished dome of the former perfectly rounded, selecting and orienting a block of briar so that its grain would follow the desired, dramatic curve of this shape's silhouette just right, and, at the most basic level, simply getting such a quirky, novel shape itself (traditional gourd Calabash bowl and transition on a short, flared shank) to come out looking natural. Li did it, but then from everything Shane has told me, the man does have a very, very active perfectionist streak.

- Eric N. Squires