Scottie Piersel: Relief Contrast Pencil Shank Dublin with Ivorite Tobacco Pipe

Scottie Piersel's pencil-shank pipes are among the most recognizable smoking instruments available, the American artisan's signature aesthetic dramatizing the relational proportions between bowl and shank. It's a optical illusion of sorts: the impossibly slender shank seemingly unfit to support such a comparatively massive bowl. Scottie's renowned engineering, though, makes such a feat possible. Despite being shaped to such a narrow diameter, each of her pencil shanks is lined with a stainless steel tube from transition to shank end, ensuring the utmost strength and durability. This pipe might seem delicate, but it's anything but — the steel reinforcement promising lifelong reliability and enabling hands-free enjoyment.

This particular Dublin rendition from Piersel is a squat version of the shape, offering a Pot-like sense of muscularity but retaining the Dublin's characteristic flare toward the rim. For this piece, Piersel left some of the briar's natural plateau at the rim's fore, and the rustic texture helps to transition the rest of the rim's smooth texture into the rugged finish below. A signature finish of Piersel's, her relief contrast application involves a combination of sandblasting and sanding to create a two-toned, two-textured motif across the stummel. Topped with a vivid stem of brindled vulcanite, this is an archetypal Piersel pipe from shape to finish and color palette.