Who's Making Classic Shapes?

You should look into getting a Ryan Alden pipe via commission. His shaping is fantastic and they're great smokers.

You want to see a nice billiard...
https://www.blueroombriars.com/collections/jesse-jones-pipes/products/jesse-jones-pipe-sandblast-billiard

Try here
Michael Parks

Cue can or worms emoji.
Asteriou is perhaps the top pipe maker when it comes to classic style billiards plenty of folks will argue the point in favor of Michael Parks, no doubt. Anastasopolous makes a mean bulldog and Gustavo Cunha (Martelo pipes) tweaks the billiard slightly but should be on anyone’s list. My favorite billiard comes from Tao, it’s short and chunky yet refined the opposite of myself

No can of worms here.
I love looking through these makers' galleries, but to be honest, I can't afford any of them :crying:
BTW, coming up on Sep. 8 is the Toronto Pipe Club annual BBQ and once again, it is being graciously hosted by Michael Parks at his workshop. If anyone is near enough or planning to be in the Toronto area on that weekend, everyone is welcome and invited.

Kyriazanos. Although, he's been producing a greater range of design more frequently the past few years, he is known for his ability to interpret and create great classically shaped pipes in the English style.

On machine made briar: Stanwell, Savinelli, Peterson, etc.
On handmade briar: Radice, Castello, Ashton, etc.
On Meer: IMP

Sam Adebayo is very talented at doing the old school English classics. I have a Lovat of his that's AMAZING. It does have a modern American twist on it though, cause it has a boxwood ring accent and it has a Bakelite uniquely colored stem. Bowl and shank though are very much Sam's take on a Dunhill Shell Briar.

There's a lot of them. Scottie Piersel, Andy Petersen, Jesse Jones, etc, just to name a few.

Maybe this is an aside, but I noticed that most factory pipe manufacturers, Dunhill on down, that rely on volume sales, stick mostly to settled traditional shapes, readily identifiable and nameable. I like to also point out that thought we think of many of these as English, most originated with the French who also "discovered" briar as a primary pipe material. When you look at factory pipes at any price level you are probably seeing mostly classic traditional shapes.

I'll add another vote for Scottie Piersel. Her Scottie pipes follow in the classical English tradition and her pipes are great smokers. Also, her prices are affordable. I have six of them and all are a pleasure to smoke.

Yes indeed, MSO, those shapes are french in origin, mostly, and divised to be made by the simple cutting/shaping heads in the factories, touched up by hand in the difficult spots. Pretty neat to see the old equipment in action, just how much of the shaping was automated.
Doing these things utterly without template, ie making them "by hand"(though of course a lathe is still in play for some parts) is pretty challenging. It's easy to get these things "wrong" and of course you can see it when it happens, where with a more free-form sort of shape, a little more artistic license is usually granted.
What's funny is, in a world of artsy pipes, and a world full of factory made factory shapes, those of us who do choose to make traditional pipes in more or less traditional finishes are kept busy doing so. Demand is high for "ordinary" pipes of good quality. Kyriazanos and Asteriou, and Parks too, are actually making pipes that are much nicer than any factory ever made - much tighter tolerances, better briar, better stem work, better shaping, everything. It's kind of ironic - the pipe posted above has a nicer blast and a nicer finish than anything out of any factory, ever, really. You could argue that the old Shell pipes have a deeper blast, but they are also a worse cut of briar almost always, the the shape of the pipe is almost always damaged by such blasting.
Anyway it's fun stuff to play with. 99% of what I make is dead traditional stuff, and I never would have guessed when I started making pipes that I would have "ended up" there. But the appreciation for making this stuff correctly seeps in over time I guess.
I just finished a copy of a GBD style pot. Boring stuff!

I like boring stuff...

Jay, it turns out a lot of guys quietly do.
George Dibos the pipe repair guru, a long while back, I mean, back when I had hair and he had teeth, like in the Mesozoic, told me that classic stuff done right always sold. And I sort of believed it, but only sort of - after all, there's all these ultra-high-grade wonder pipes you see out there, the ballerinas and blowfish, but how many guys buy and or smoke those? How many guys smoke (and prefer) straight billiards? Lots. So the customer base is large and steady. George was bang on. I made a Bing type pipe on commission recently, I started 3 pipes, picked the most likely candidate for the sandblast that was requested, and finished the other 2. One sold the day it was finished, the other sold long before it was finished. You cannot produce enough of these things as a pipe maker.

And I sort of believed it, but only sort of - after all, there's all these ultra-high-grade wonder pipes you see out there, the ballerinas and blowfish, but how many guys buy and or smoke those?

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Well, I'm one. I have a couple of billiards but they are rarely used.

But the appreciation for making this stuff correctly seeps in over time I guess.

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When I started carving, Bruce Weaver once told me that if you could master a straight billiard, you could make anything. A simple shape, but difficult to master.

Jesse jones (Blue Room Briars), Ashton, Northern Briars, and if you like colorful stems, Chris Askwith. Personally, I've adopted Jesse Jones as "My" pipe carver!

Like Biliards and Brandies? Jesse Jones!