Scottie Piersel: Partially Sandblasted Pencil Shank Pot Tobacco Pipe

Scottie Piersel is known for crafting pipes that prioritize function, longevity, and comfort above all else. That's not to say her pipes aren't stylish — they most certainly are — but Piersel prefers aesthetics to complement her pipes' shaping and engineering rather than supersede them. She crafts a wide variety of classic English shapes, but she's perhaps best known for her pencil-shanked designs, like this Pot.

At first glance, one could be forgiven for assuming that this piece has some structural issues, as the broad, stout-walled bowl appears precariously perched at the fore of the slender shank-and-stem arrangement. Piersel, however, accounts for everything when fashioning a pipe, and she's lined the impossible thin shank with stainless steel tubing, reinforcing the composition and counterbalancing the weight disparity between bowl and shank. Exceptionally long, measuring past nine inches in total length, this piece is certainly eye-catching, yet it remains rather lightweight thanks to the arrow-straight shank-and-stem arrangement's svelte build. A crisp, earthy sandblast dresses the stummel and highlights some impressive grain about the bowl, save for the rim, which is left smooth for a bit of tactile contrast. A tapered mouthpiece of green and orange vulcanite tops off everything and provides a dose of vibrancy to the composition, lightening the pipe's otherwise reserved color palette.