Sandblasted Strawberry Wood Bent Dublin (Three Clubs) Tobacco Pipe

Today's Becker batch is a bit unusual, in respect to those we saw from Paolo of the last several years, in that there's only one pipe in it that isn't briar. Still, while it is the only non-briar, it is quite a large non-briar, on the upper end of the scale for the late Paolo's work - and not wasting an inch when it comes to showing off blasted ring grain. I suspect Paolo was developing a particularly keen eye for reading strawberry wood during his final years, based on two observations: 1) he was certainly getting in plenty of practice, making a lot of pipes from this wilder-grained, lighter cousin of briar, and 2) he was doing a better job than anyone else of taming said grain, producing remarkably consistent displays like this.

- Eric N. Squires