SU Pipes Large Smooth Brandy Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

You may have wondered, as I often do, what would happen if professional meerschaum carver was to turn their attention to briar wood, and to make pipes out of that instead. While many early briar pipe manufacturers, such as Frederick Charatan, made just such a transition back in the late 19th century, both briar and meerschaum pipe manufacture have changed significantly in the century since, making for an interesting opportunity. Enter Sebahattin Urgan of SU Pipes, former apprentice to Eskişehir’s master of meerschaum Emre Bay and now an expert carver in his own right. Urgan’s talents have in recent years extended to handcrafting briar pipes, having been greatly inspired by the legends of Scandinavian and post-Scandinavian design.

The brandy is a shape that has existed for about as long as briar pipes have, but only with the advent of post-war artisan pipe making has it truly lived up to its name. There’s only so much you can do with a lathe—the principal technology behind traditional briar pipe manufacture—if you really want to capture the essence of a snifter, you’ll need a slightly more “low tech” approach. In that case, it is the sanding disc or belt that is your friend, allowing for a design that balloons just like its namesake. Like the renditions of Danish masters such as Ph. Vigen, Jorn Larsen, and Kurt Balleby, this brandy from Sebahattin Urgan is beautifully round, and even goes so far as to incorporate a slight lip at the bowl’s rim, just like the mouth of its glass counterpart. While many of Urgan’s pipes feature decorative additions, this one has been kept relatively modest, likely because the grain shows off plenty as is.

As this is one of Urgan’s favorite works, it comes with a custom-fitted clam-shell case.

 

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.73 / 18.54mm

Bowl Depth: 1.60″ / 40.64mm

Weight: 3.0oz / 86g