Gandalf's Branch

It is a pleasure to present Gandalf's Branch. This freestyle (wizard) pipe features a beautiful bamboo churchwarden stem with a brass tenon and a pipe bowl in the the same family as The Trunk and the Branch. I realize in previous posts I have made digs at certain churchwarden pipes being considered for travels but of course for Gandalf I must eat my own words. Of course Gandalf must be able to safely store such a pipe as this at any time. Why else would his hat be so tall?

The Wizard (or the Whale)

After I made the pipe featured in "The Big Block" I got a lot of positive feed back on it, especially because of the natural burl on the top. This pipe is an attempt to create a similar surface with a wire brush on a less expensive piece of briar. While I was carving this I thought it looked like a cartoon whale that was blowing water our of the hole meant for blowing water out of(I do apologize to all of you lovers of whale anatomy out there. I'm sure I learned the correct word for this at one point but some how it just hasn't  come up much since and thus I have forgotten it), but then a friend of mine thought it looked like a wizard's pipe, and I had to agree. I know that it looks nothing like the pipes from "The Lord of the Rings" movies but I don't think Gandalf would turn this pipe down if it were packed with a nice "Southfarthing"

Once again this is a Briar Pipe. The wire brushed surfaces have been stained with a black stain and the rest is stained with a red mahogany under coat and a brown mocha on top. It has a slightly curved freestyle stem.