HS Studio Rusticated Volcano Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

While China has long been associated with cheaper factory pipes, a new generation of artisans and workshops have emerged over the past decade, producing some genuinely excellent pipes. HS Studio is an example of the latter, being a Hong Kong workshop dedicated to crafting handmade briars, typically in shapes and styles reminiscent of the post-war artisan scene.

I’m a big fan of the return of rustication in the world of handmade pipes. While in Italy, rustication has been part of the artisan tradition since the end of the Second World War, for the rest of the world, non-factory pipes have predominantly featured either smooth or sandblasted finishes, in part as a way to show off the carver’s mastery in taming briar grain patterns. But grain is not the only measure of a carver’s skill, and as artisans such as Alexey Kharlamov, Andrea Gigliuicci, and, of course, Tom Eltang have shown, there are plenty of fascinating and visually enjoyable things that can be done with simple hand-rustication tools. This particular pipe, from Hong Kong’s HS  Studio workshop, looks to have been influenced a little by some of Eltang’s rusticated finishes, and the result is genuinely mesmerizing.

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

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.77″ / 44.95mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g