Ryan Alden: Sandblasted Strawberry Wood Billiard with Boxwood (Queen of Hearts) Tobacco Pipe

Not only does this update of Ryan Alden pipes feature the first ever morta pipe we've seen from Ryan, but it also offers the first strawberry wood number we've received from him which also happens to be the first pipe into which Alden has incorporated boxwood. Needless to say, it's quite the quartet of pipes from the American artisan — from morta to strawberry wood to bakelite stems, Ryan really pulled out all the stops with these smokers he's most recently sent us. In this piece, though Alden branched out in the material he used, the shape here is very much in line with his other classically English offerings. It's a bold, palm-filling Billiard with even more briar lent to the base, ensuring a full feel in hand and sturdy sitting capabilities, with the boxwood-accented, abbreviated saddle stem lending the profile a slight Lovat-esque look. The finish, though, is anything but classic — dressed in a tan stain, the strawberry wood's unique grain is as eccentric and whimsical and crazy as you could hope it would be, looking like something off a topographical map in the way deep craters and rushing ridges transition in and out of one another.