Tao: Smooth Billiard with Antique Whale Tooth Tobacco Pipe

Though quite the handy briar in terms of length, this compact, pale beauty of a straight Billiard is I would say actually pretty trim by Tao standards; as an artisan Tao is known after all for favoring very robust designs, something he picked up during his days as a sailor. (His life aboard ships probably wasn't too kind to delicately shaped pipes, one can imagine.) That said, this pipe is one that Tao chose for a special nod to the history and traditions of those whose lives have been intimately tied to the sea. Said special nod is found in the most unusual stem material, sourced from a very specific locale: antique whale tooth from the Faroe Islands.

While the harvesting of whales is most often thought of in terms of the once widespread whaling industry, small-scale, localized whale hunts have been central to Faroese life since the North Atlantic islands were settled by the Norse, circa 800 A.D. With a climate and soil wholly unsuited to supporting life by farming crops, those who lived on the Faroe Islands learned to subsist upon pilot whale, sheep, seabirds, and fish. The rich meat and blubber of the pilot whale was (and still is) the most important, the annual catch to this day being divided communally then stored, prepared or preserved in Faorese households (in other words, you won't find it in a Faroe Islands supermarket, nor do they export any of it).

- Eric N. Squires