Todd Johnson: Smooth Blowfish (Phalanx) Tobacco Pipe

This Blowfish rendition represents the version most often seen within Todd Johnson's portfolio, making it easily recognized as the work of the skilled American artisan. While the Blowfish shape enjoys a creative degree of diversity across its iterations, the shape is consistently defined by encircling ridgelines and panels that frame the grain with birdseye along the flanks and cross grain running through the center of the stummel.

As Todd's personal take on the shape, this piece still features those aforementioned ridges and facets, and the specific grain orientation, but the silhouette is more upright and rounded — almost Egg-like — with the flanks slightly bulging for a supple, organic inclination that contrasts against the crisp structure of the ridgelines. What I find particularly indicative of Todd's versions is the concave shaping of the rim in profile, the encircling ridges coming to points and dipping down above the chamber.

Having received Johnson's Phalanx grade (second only to his Phalanx "Q"), it's no surprise that this piece exhibits superlative grain. The flanks are saturated with birdseye, and the cross grain across the middle is concise and ever-tight. For accenting touches, Todd poised a kiss of plateau along the right flank, blending seamlessly with the swirling grain, as well as a tasteful "beauty spot" of mammoth just in front of the transition's flicking "fin."