HS Studio Sandblasted Long Shank Acorn w/ Boxwood 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 noticed that HS Studio pipes appear to have dropped off the map recently, which makes me wonder if the workshop has moved on to other things. I suppose that’s how things are, sometimes. In any case, this particular HS Studio, from 2023, takes on a form frequently featured in the make’s output: the long shank acorn. The shape originated with the Ivarsson family, and more specifically with the reinterpretation of the acorn shapes of Sixten Ivarsson by his own son, Lars Ivarsson. This one mixes a little of both Sixten’s and Lars’s approaches to the shape, bearing the hallmark long and low-slung figure of Lars’s acorns, as well as his liberal use of boxwood accents, with the more slender frame of Sixten’s famous acorn shapes. The pipe is, additionally, dressed in a very contemporary contrast finish, with its black and tan top-coat bringing out the ring grain of the sandblast relief underneath.

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

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.80 / 20.32mm

Bowl Depth: 1.28″ / 32.51mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g