Smooth Bent Dublin with Masur Birch Tobacco Pipe

The shaping of this Rasmussen is what I would call a mix of classical and playful, having a rather formal and controlled style of bowl, before sweeping through the transition to a lifting, flaring shank that, for some reason, reminded me immediately of a Whale freehand (despite being on an otherwise very un-Whale like pipe). The odd thing about it is that the two don't clash, or even particularly stand together as if in juxtaposition. Rather, the shape just very naturally goes from one to the other style as if this were a perfectly normal thing to do. That is to say, it isn't a perfectly normal thing to do, but Kent made it look like it was anyway.

More difficult to subdue than the effects of that shaping trick was the briar's grain. On one hand there's lots and lots of flame grain, and on the other there's birdseye at the rim that is frankly kind of ridiculous. Not to be entirely outdone by the rim, over at the other end of things you'll find a teardrop-shape of crisp plateau accented by a brass ring cut flush with the detail of that natural texture, and of course the pale mazur birch that appears to sprout from it as the base of the stem.