Smooth Olivewood Horn with Horn Tobacco Pipe

Every July since 2015, Smokingpipes has hosted the American Pipe-Making Exposition, an event that showcases the work of a number of America's best artisan pipe makers, all united under a central theme. This theme acts as a guideline that sets the stage for pieces that, while they may share a similar trait, are each unique, showcasing the singular sensibilities of the artisan who crafted it. For 2023, the theme was alternate stummel materials, and, to that end, Abe Herbaugh has presented us with this Danish-style Horn carved from olivewood.

Abe Herbaugh is one of the most accomplished young artisans in America, and is one of my absolute favorites in the pipe-making world, not the least because of his start in the craft. For much of his adult life, ten years to be more specific, Herbaugh built electric guitars, though he was inspired to begin carving pipes early in his childhood, thanks to pipe-smoking members of his family. Music runs in his family too: His first several pipes were carved in his father's fiddle workshop.

This Horn is much like other Horns we've seen from Herbaugh in the past, and it embodies an extremely compact silhouette which is here possessed of a lilting sinuousness through the shank and stem. While many modern renditions of the Horn feature lengthy builds that showcase a consistent expansion throughout as the shape advances toward the rim, this pipe keeps all of its outward flare constrained to the stummel, though the stem is fitted with a stylish expansion ring at the base. Said stem marries a domed fitment of horn whose face is inlaid with a brass ring that reinforces the push-mounted mortise/tenon arrangement for enhanced strength. The base of this horn section is also expanded, matching the style of the stem, and from its placement on the shank end, the shank itself takes on a measured flare out as it grows toward and through the transitional area. While the briar reaches outward, it also lifts, curling upward in a manner reminiscent of its namesake and flaring out to a crisp ridgeline, with this ridge additionally denoting a domed taper up to the chamfered rim. Thick and reassuring in hand, the compactness of this pipe adds to its charm, and its olivewood stummel has here been finished in a light, smooth finish that does well to showcase the swirling ink-on-paper grain for which the medium is known.