Cabernet

Out of stock

Giving this pipe a name, as is my somewhat silly habit of doing, I could not think of anything but “Cabernet”, for it reminded me of the full-bodied red wine variety.

I have been credited with carving a pipe or two, but in all the years of doing it, I have not had a block of briar quite like this one – or maybe I did, but it went unnoticed. The wood was very dry and somewhat hard and I think it had been lying forgotten in the briar cutter’s store for a fair number of years.

But the main thing that really caught my attention, was the colour. Briar is light in colour, perhaps like straw or perhaps a slight pinkish tint and that is why pipe carvers have to grab a bottle of stain. But this block was red, so red in fact, that I did not have to use any stain on it whatsoever.

Bowl coating – now there is a contentious subject. Although I am of the opinion that a bowl coating will protect the pipe from premature burnout to some extent, I believe the main reason for doing it is aesthetics. Briar is porous, so porous in fact that stain, especially a darker stain, will seep right through it. It just looks better and who wants a pipe with dark stain blotches in the chamber?

I was excited at the prospect of leaving this one uncoated, because I could, and perhaps as evidence of the dark colour of the briar.

And that is what makes it special.