Scottie Piersel: Relief Contrast Magnum Pencil Shank Billiard Tobacco Pipe

Leveraging a background in industrial engineering, sculpting, and architecture, Scottie Piersel fashions sleek, dynamic shapes that prioritize functionality and longevity above all else. That's not to say her work isn't visually rich, because it most certainly is, but Piersel prefers for aesthetics to complement rather than supersede her pipe's engineering and shaping. Piersel produces a wide range of shapes, but she's perhaps best know for her pencil-shanked pipes, like this Magnum-sized Billiard.

Long, lean, and impressively elegant, this piece stretches out past 12 inches in total length, but the slender diameter of the shank manages to keep the overall form incredibly lightweight for its size. At first glance, one could be forgiven for assuming that this piece was haphazardly constructed, as the lengthy, svelte shank-and-stem arrangement seems too fragile to hold the bowl's stout, muscular build. But Piersel accounts for the weight disparity of her pipes by lining all of her pencil shanks with stainless steel tubing for added durability. Scottie's signature Relief Contrast finish dresses the stummel and brings vivid definition to the briar, coaxing out rippling waves of grain about the bowl interspersed with smoother sections for handsome contrast. The stummel's deep stain is complemented by a tapered stem of brindled vulcanite, resulting in a splash of color and a visually harmonious profile.