Postmodern Thoughts on a Square (The Gavel)

I received this block as a ebauchon briar but as I started working it I discovered it was actually a small Plateaux Briar. A while back a friend asked me if I could make a pipe with a square bowl. Taking that as a challenge and trying to get as much of the splendid straight grains as possible the square shape began to form. This was not a quick pipe as I had to use a file for a lot of forming around the stem. 

The Big Block

My last order of briar came with a rather large block of Plateaux briar. This briar is taken from the edge of the root bowl. When looking at this pipe, the lip around the bowl and the lip where the stem is inserted is the natural contour of the root system. All I did to shape it was to brush any of the flaking bark off of it. I then stained that area black. The rest of the body has some of the most amazing straight grain I have ever worked with. That area is stained with a brown undertone and a red top stain.