Sandblasted Fish Tobacco Pipe

Jared Coles often pays homage to Danish greats like Lars Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch with shapes like this Fish, a design popularized by the two legends. Jared has made the design his own though, with a flowing, forward-ebbing bowl and supple line work, rendered here in a craggy sandblast that evokes a nuance of fish scales. The rim is soft and inflated, another Danish design cue, and the shank is asymmetric, a subtle teardrop in cross section with a crisp ridgeline on the right flank.

Coles clearly knows his way around the blasting cabinet, and his skill here put excellent ring grain on full display, with tight, uniform stacks of growth rings all around the bowl. It wears a dark ruby stain, with the rim and shank face left smooth for contrast. An abbreviated stem of hand-cut and funneled vulcanite bends down just slightly out back, offering an easy draw and a comfortable clench.