Mike Sebastian Bay: Rusticated Cutty with Camel Tobacco Pipe

Mike Sebastian Bay is one of the most accomplished young artisans in Denmark, and his journey into the world of pipe making happened seemingly as an act of providence. While scouring Denmark to find someone who could competently repair some of his father's pipes, he happened to find himself in the workshop of the legendary Tom Eltang. After talking, the two bonded and Bay was apprenticed to the master who taught him the intricacies of the Danish design tradition, and gave him experience in finishing, shaping, and drilling. Bay is one of the select few people that Tom has given the blessing of being able to utilize his signature rustication, the same rustication that dresses this Cutty.

Measuring just a touch over five inches in length and under 30 grams in weight, this pipe is incredibly light and eminently clenchable. The saddle stem meets a trim band of camel bone before the briar takes hold, and the stretch of shank that leads into the transition is even, meeting the bowl with some subtle cheeking and at a wide angle, canting the bowl forward as per the traditional profile. The bowl itself is slightly bulbous, bulging out near its midsection before tapering to the rim, the cant urging the fore of the rim forward with a palpable momentum reflected in its shaping, as this portion of the rim is slightly elongated, drawing one's eye naturally toward it. The stummel is dressed in the aforementioned Eltang-style rustication, carved with craggy valleys and peaks throughout the surface of the briar and stained a deep, nearly black, chestnut that contrasts starkly with the pale band of camel bone around the shank end, for a bucolic yet genteel look that elevates the overall composition.