HS Studio Sandblasted Cutty w/ Horn Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

If you’ve been keeping up with the world of Chinese pipe making, their artisan scene has been really taking off over the last decade. Like the great Danish institutions of old, many of these pipes are produced in artisan workshops such as Zhiputang, Qi Studio, and GH Zhang. Hong Kong’s HS Studio follows a similar model, with a team of expert in-house carvers crafting high-quality briars in a variety of styles.

The cutty is one of the oldest shapes in briar pipe making, that being because it is a direct transposition of one of the most popular shapes for clay pipes, prior to briar’s discovery (hence its vestigial “foot”). As I’ve mentioned before, the cutty is both a very traditional shape and one that has seen a great, modern revival in the past few decades, spearheaded by Danish artisans such as Tom Eltang. And while I’ve also noted that China’s HS Studio has shown itself to be heavily influenced by the great Danish carvers—as just about every pipe maker is today—this cutty rendition struck me as very different. Like the classical cutty and its functionalist re-imaginings, it’s a slender, lightweight design, but it is also one distinguished by a horn (or very good imitation horn) ferrule, with an asymmetrical end that neatly mirrors the forward cant of the bowl.

This pipe is completely unsmoked and comes with its original sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 7.2″ / 182.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.53″ / 38.86mm

Weight: 1.0oz / 30g