Smooth Sphinx (Ohi) (J) Tobacco Pipe

While Elephant's Feet have been numerous enough, the sibling Sphinx shape is one we've seen considerably less of; our archives only turn up a handful, and out of that handful, only one by Alex Florov and one by Todd Johnson that stuck to trying to perfect the original Bo Bordh approach, rather than reinvent it (with, say, a drastically different degree of bend, or relationship between bowl and shank proportions). Well, with this Ikebana by Yoshirou Ohi, now there's three. And, no offense to Alex or Todd, out of them this is my personal favorite. The considerable asymmetry Ohi introduced here is deftly balanced, the much meatier proportions are approached with an effortless flow, and, despite the changes Yoshirou Ohi has made, it takes only one glance at the profile to still recognize this briar as a Sphinx of direct inspiration from the Nordh original.

- Eric N. Squires