Nate King Natural Sandblasted Panel Dublin Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

It is very likely that Indiana’s Nate King had something of a “head start” when he first took up pipe making, by virtue of his previous careers. First employed as a transmission specialist in an IndyCar pit crew, before moving on to work as an aeronautical engineer, King came to pipes already having a wealth of experience working with industrial machinery and an acute understanding of fluid dynamics. On the side, King enjoyed restoring estate pipes and, in the 2000s, he began making pipes of his own, after being taken under the wing (if you’ll excuse the pun) of fellow Indiana artisan Wayne Teipen. In the years since, King has emerged as one of North America’s premier artisans and has received numerous awards for his work, including a Master of Pipes from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club and a fellowship at France’s Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude. He is also a frequent collaborator with G.L. Pease, with whom he designs yearly, limited runs of novel pipe shapes.

One of Nate King’s remarkable talents is blending extraordinarily rugged, sandblast finishes with forms that are remarkably fluid, with the result being pipes that are far more elegant than one would expect from that juxtaposition. Not unlike the designs of Italy’s Maurizio Tombari and his Le Nuvole pipes, there is a palpable lightness to King’s works, one which prevails even in the case of either’s rather bold designs. This one is no exception; from its strong-jawed, slightly blocky, plateaux-topped, and densely sandblasted bowl, to its overarching sense of “flight” and forward motion, it is what I’d call a “classic King” design. The finishing is similarly so, with the pipe’s ring grain blast furnished only by a light use of oils and wax, so as to let the briar do its own thing.

Details:

Length: 5.9″ / 149.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.42″ / 36.06mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 48.2g