Cavicchi CCCC Grade Smooth Horn w/ Bocote Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

In 1974, after growing impatient waiting for a pipe he’d ordered, Claudio Cavicchi decided he would simply make his own pipe instead. The former farmer from Bologna, Italy, spent the next 15 years making pipes, until his work took off and received widespread acclaim. Cavicchi’s pipe-making exploits have only become more renowned in the decades since. Today, Cavicchi’s pipes hold a firm place at the top of an extraordinarily competitive Italian high-grades scene, being as carefully and meticulously crafted as they are beautiful. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Claudio himself is a world record holding slow smoking champion.

I think I’ve said it before, but it cannot be stated enough: not only does Claudio Cavicchi produce some of the finest pipes on the market today, but he is also once of the most versatile pipe makers alive. He can turn an Anglo-French large billiard with grain comparable to the highest grades on the Dunhill Dead Root line, an Italian-style Dublin leagues ahead of most of his compatriots, or indeed a Danish horn that one might mistake for the work of Jess Chonowitsch. This would be an example of the latter. Following in the tradition of the “Oliphant” shapes pioneered by Sixten Ivarsson and Bo Nordh, and which have become a staple for any artisan looking for a challenge, or a way to show their skills, here we have Cavicchi’s take on the iconic paneled horn. While a little boxier (by design) than Ivarsson’s or Nordh’s renditions, Cavicchi’s follows much the same principles as far as shaping and grain orientation go. This second part is especially on point, with the bowl’s rim and flanks used to express a tiger-stripe of cross grain, and the single, curved plane of its front-face and base projecting a sea of bird’s-eye. As is quite typical for Cavicchi’s higher-grade pieces, this one foregoes the Danish approach to the Oliphant’s bowl-stem transition in favor of a ferrule cut from Central American Bocote hardwood.

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

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.70″ / 43.18mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 66g