Sandblasted Calabash with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

The Calabash is one of the most iconic pipe shapes, having appeared in film and TV over the decades and displaying quite the memorable profile. Renditions reminiscent of old gourd Calabashes are especially recognizable, and Ken Dederichs presents here a briar rendition of that striking form. It's a design we've seen before from the Germany-based, Japanese artisan, though sandblasted in this particular offering.

Dederichs has played with the proportions, drawing visual weight to the bowl and chamber cap through the use of a saddle stem and comparatively short and slender shank. It remains a compact piece, however — barely over five inches in length — and such diminution serves to further accentuate the plump, chubby flare of the bowl and cap. Instead of the traditional gourd Calabash's meerschaum chamber and rim cap, Ken has shaped boxwood to that function: The pale, yellow hardwood is supple and domed, overhanging slightly above the stummel, while the inset chamber itself is fashioned from briar.

Said boxwood cap is secured to the briar stummel via a cork lining at the top of the internal cooling chamber. Such a touch hearkens back to the original construction of traditional Calabashes and testifies to Ken's consideration of details and quality construction, the cap well-sealed and fitted tightly. Going further, Dederichs has polished and stained the top of the stummel — an aspect only noticed when the cap is removed and one that, while purely aesthetic, shows the extra mile Ken goes with his work to ensure the entire composition is clean and complete, no stone left unturned.