HS Studio Magnum Sandblasted Asymmetric 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.

I’ve said before that, with certain HS Studio pipes, its quite clear that they’re something of an homage to one master or another from the history of post-war pipe making. With pipes like this one, however, it’s more like an homage to a moment in pipe making. In this instance, that moment would be the rebirth of “Danish” pipe making toward the end of the 20th century, out of the ashes of its great artisan workshops. While Pibe Dan and WO Larsen were no more (the latter having switched to a factory production model), its alumni continued on with more innovative and technically proficient designs than ever. Figures such as Teddy Knudsen, Tonni Nielsen, Benni Jorgensen, and Lasse Skovgaard were, it seemed, only getting started regarding what a freehand pipe could be, resulting in pipes not unlike this one. Taking Danish staples, such as the horn, and weaving in furls, flutings, and furrows, they crafted shapes that were novel, yet not unrecognizable, achieving the same feats that their mentors and forebears had at the very beginnings of post-war pipe making. That would be the moment a pipe like this one—executed expertly from its basic form to its finishing—pays tribute to, which is more than welcome as far as I see it.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 7.5″ / 190.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.75″ / 44.45mm

Weight: 3.0oz / 86g