Ryan Alden: Smooth Billiard with Silver (Ace of Spades) Tobacco Pipe

Ryan Alden doesn't fashion many smooth finished pipes as the American carver exhibits great patience, waiting for just the right piece of briar to craft one. Alden found a particularly remarkable briar block for this thoroughly traditional Billiard interpretation. The cross-grain pattern on this piece is downright stunning and is easily one of the most perfect examples I've been privileged to see as hypnotic whorls of birdseye dominate the flanks, separated by lanes of cross grain along the fore and aft. The tall, deep-chambered bowl provides plenty of surface to showcase the gorgeous grain and like the majority of Alden's output, the bowl garners the majority of the visual weight in relation to the comparatively trimmer shank-and-stem combination. The low-set transition further accentuates the bowl's prominence while the vulcanite stem tapers beautifully towards the lip button. A bright silver band adorns the shank end, reinforcing this piece's traditional appeal and making it even more irresistible for anyone drawn to artisan renditions of shape chart standards.