A while ago, I commissioned a pipe from Will and it turned out absolutely lovely. Great shape, great stain, went for a deep red cumberland stem (my first cumberland) with a spalted maple shank extension. That pipe has quickly become my favorite and it smokes like a champ. A few days ago he posted a photo on Facebook of another pipe he was working on that under normal circumstances I just wouldn't be interested in. I'm not a big fan of pokers or sitters... I don't know why, I'm just not. For some reason I suppose they just don't look very appealing to me. Usually I see one and I'm just, "Meh...nope, not interested." Well this pipe, first seen unfinished, the stem attached in the photo but still blocky and unfinished for some reason grabbed my attention quite quickly. I could tell already that this thing was going to be just wonderful. I sent the link to a buddy of mine... "hey buddy. You like straight shanked sitters? No? Me neither. But what do you think about this? I know right? It's freaking fantastic! I don't know I just might buy it. I'm gonna wait until he gets some more photos up and see what it looks like when the stems cut and has a stain on it." And BOOOOOOOOM! A couple days later there's more photos, the stem is shaped, there's a stain on it and I'm all..... googly eyed. Googly eyed over a pipe I normally would be all "Meh, I'll pass." So I message Will wondering how much he's going to want for it. He tells me he'll let me know when it's finished, but probably around the same I paid for my commission, give or take, something like that. I'm cool with that. I get home from work, he's got the finished pipe posted and has sent me a message about how much he's asking for it. I find myself trying very very very hard to talk myself out of buying this pipe. Of course, he informs me that the spalted maple on THIS pipe came from the same piece that's on my commissioned pipe.... "Don't do it," I tell myself. "Don't... Anthony, don't you do it... don't you... don't you DARE! ANTHONY DAVID ROSENTHAL YOU BETTER NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT...." Sold! And I'm the proud new owner. I don't blame myself. Not really. Perhaps it was a pipe fairy sprinkling a bit of briar dust on my head and waving a vulcanite rod around, casting some kind of hocus pocus on me. Stupid little pipe fairy :D
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Will took a style I normally wouldn't like, and added curves and style, angles on stem and extension, rounded off the top of the bowl, made the pipe dynamic, and gave it a bit of a sideways cant so it doesn't just sit... it sits with style and attitude. It's a bad boy. A rebel. And it knows it.
Will took a style I normally wouldn't like, and added curves and style, angles on stem and extension, rounded off the top of the bowl, made the pipe dynamic, and gave it a bit of a sideways cant so it doesn't just sit... it sits with style and attitude. It's a bad boy. A rebel. And it knows it.