Sykes Wilford and I are back at it again today for another very special episode of "All Pipes Considered," talking about the next installment of our 25th Anniversary project, this time collaborating with Castello.

[Andrew Wike]: Before we talk about this exciting release, we want to share a bit of sad news.

[Sykes Wilford]: Franco "Kino" Coppo passed away on Thursday, April 17. It was very sudden. I knew Kino for almost 25 years, almost my entire career in the pipe world, and I've collaborated with him on many projects over the years, seeing him many times a year. This right here is the last project that I will have collaborated with Kino on, which makes it, for me, particularly special.

[AW]: Yeah. As that last project with Kino, I think this is super representative of Castello.

25th Anniversary Pipe Plans

[AW]: Can you tell me a little bit about when you were working with Kino and Shane?

[SW]: Sure. Absolutely. Shane and I started talking about what the 25th Anniversary pipes would be in very general terms about a year ago. We discussed what we could possibly do with Castello, what would be distinctive, and how we wanted to do it. Shane had the idea of doing a series of very large Le Dune finish pipes. As soon as he articulated that idea, I was interested. Then we needed to see if we could get Kino to do it.

In October, when I was at Castello, Kino and I started talking about it, and he was like, yes, but not many, because coming up with the blocks for pipes of this size is really hard. The work on this particular finish is not a rustication so much as it is like a very intricate car finish that takes an enormous amount of time for them to execute in the workshop.

Kino thought it was amazing as an idea, and he knew they would be beautiful, but he said, we are not making 25 of these for you guys. He didn't quite put it that way, of course, but we settled on eight pieces total for the project.

We refined the idea, and he made some suggestions. I don't remember exactly how these things work out in the end; it's a collaborative process, and different people are pointing out challenges or new ideas. About half of the production was done in January.

[AW]: Do you know how long it takes to complete one of them?

[SW]: You know, I've never asked. I've watched the process be done, but not from beginning to end. I've watched it enough to know that it must take a very long time, but I've never asked. It is definitely a slow process, carving the Le Dune finish.

Large Le Dune Pipes with Dark-Blue Stems

[AW]: What I like about these, too, is that often when you see very large pipes, they're maybe Freehands or they don't exist in the canonical shape chart as we know it. However, here, all of these are very recognizably Castello shapes. Taking those shapes and scaling them up to great line proportions, and adding what I think is the coolest Castello finish that there is, they're wonderfully Castello in so many ways. Most of these have fumed rims and that wonderful gradation from top to bottom.

[SW]: All the stems are a very dark blue. This is something that Castello has been doing with these darker acrylics, either in purple or in blue or other colors, where the fact that it is a colored stem is super subtle. From across the room, you can't tell. That's also a nice touch across the whole series.

[AW]: Yeah, totally. I didn't even realize that until you pointed it out. It is quite subtle, but I think it's really nice because you have the cooler-toned acrylic with the warmer stains. There's some nice contrast there. Did you guys get to choose blue as the stem, or was it more of something that Kino wanted to do?

[SW]: I'm pretty sure that was all Kino's decision. He knows that we think the really dark-colored stems are cool because we've talked about it in the past.

Eight Castello Pipes Commemorating 25 Years of Smokingpipes

[AW]: They all come in these very nice presentation boxes with a little plaque on the inside that says Castello. They're all stamped with our 25th anniversary stamp, further commemorating the project. These are super limited — only eight pipes were made.

As Sykes mentioned, this is unfortunately the last project that we were able to collaborate with Kino on, but I'm very happy with the outcome and the result, and I really hope that you guys enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed getting to work on them and seeing those ideas come into fruition.

[SW]: There are only eight for the whole series on-site now, while we have them. This is one of the most limited series of pipes we'll do as part of our 25th collaboration celebration, and it was a real privilege to be able to work on these with Kino one last time. I'm really proud of what we put together here.