HS Studio Sandblasted Wasp 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.

One of the most novel and interesting pipe designs in the later 20th century was the aptly named “wasp” or, rather, “Wespe.” First conceived by German artisan Wolfgang Becker, the Wespe is distinguished by its apple-like “head” and enlarged shank, much like it’s namesake’s abdominal region. In the years since, the wasp has become the subject of various tributes and homages, especially given Becker’s own meteoric rise in the artisan scene. This one from HS Studio is appropriately shapely, with a craggy, ring grain sandblast offset by a ring of off-white boxwood.

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

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.20″ / 30.48mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g