Smooth Acorn with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Back near the end of January, when we first brought Sam Cui into the fold of Smokingpipes.com regular carvers, we noticed that, in addition to an attention to detail that bordered on the captious, Sam had a particular taste for both Japanese naturalism and Danish neoclassicism. Here he's brought all three elements into the one composition, with a Pot-like take on the Acorn.

The rhythm of bamboo-shanked pipes is notoriously hard to carry, but Sam has deftly done so here, helped a little by a subtle forward cant of the high-waisted and fanning bowl, giving the eye a quick nudge toward the delicate transition and stub of shank, which in turn quickly gives way to a short, two knuckled stretch of bamboo, and again by the wafer thin saddle stem.

- Adam O'Neill