Todd Johnson: Partially Rusticated Samurai Volcano Tobacco Pipe

A signature shape from Todd Johnson, the Samurai Volcano is a specific take on the iconic design. It's still marked by a ridgeline separating heel from tapered bowl, but Johnson's particular rendition incorporates a flicking spur just below the transition, interrupting the shank's implied line into the bowl's underside. It creates a wave-like aesthetic that calls to mind many a theme in Japanese art and, especially, samurai armor of old. It's all dressed in a rippling rustication style that emulates sandblasted ring grain but offers a texture utterly unique in its own right, the craggy texture extended, even, to the shape's defining heel spur before giving way to the domed heel's walnut-stained, smooth, polished finish. A piece that's as comfortable slung from the jaw or wrapped in hand, it also sits upright thanks to the craggy shaping of the heel spur. As practical and handy as it is gorgeous.