Scott Klein: Smooth Acorn with Briar Tobacco Pipe

As is often the case with skillfully made shapes that combine plenty of roundness with compact overall proportions, this Scott Klein design makes for the sort of briar you just want to pick up from the moment you spy it. At least, it had that affect on me anyway. My point is, this is a very charming number, "little" in the sense of length and height, but shapely, pert, and plump of bowl, as well as playfully broad when it comes to its tear-drop shank. In terms of accents and asymmetry, in both cases Scott kept things subtle; the bowl's cross-section has a bit of implied turn to the right, balancing the shank's slightly greater flare to the left, and the accents consist of only of a briar facing to the shank (finished in a manner much less dramatic than the stummel's strong contrast) and the barest hint of plateau left scattered around the rim.

- Eric N. Squires