SU Pipes Smooth Pickaxe w/ Oxhorn Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

You may have wondered, as I often do, what would happen if professional meerschaum carver was to turn their attention to briar wood, and to make pipes out of that instead. While many early briar pipe manufacturers, such as Frederick Charatan, made just such a transition back in the late 19th century, both briar and meerschaum pipe manufacture have changed significantly in the century since, making for an interesting opportunity. Enter Sebahattin Urgan of SU Pipes, former apprentice to Eskişehir’s master of meerschaum Emre Bay and now an expert carver in his own right. Urgan’s talents have in recent years extended to handcrafting briar pipes, having been greatly inspired by the legends of Scandinavian and post-Scandinavian design.

Sebahattin Urgan’s inspirations are vast, though his fondness for post-war Danish pipe making is not something he shies away from. This impressive pickaxe is another example of him putting his own twist on a more contemporary Danish mainstay. While the figure of the elephant’s foot is much more common historically, contemporary artisans such as Lasse Skovgaard and Peter Heding have shown a distinct interest in blending such designs with the more traditional pickaxe. As with Skovgaard and Heding, Urgan has chosen to drastically exaggerate the height of the bowl, providing even more space to highlight the wealth of cross-grain running down its flanks (as well as a sprawling range of erupting plateaux burl at its fore). Rather than the bamboo preferred by the Danes, however, Urgan’s pickaxe is accented by an extension cut from oxhorn, through which an aluminum tube has been inserted to stabilize the design. As this is one of Urgan’s favorite works, it comes with a custom-fitted clam-shell case.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.85″ / 46.99mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 68g