Pete Prevost: Partially Sandblasted Olivewood Author Tobacco Pipe

Since 2015, we here at Smokingpipes have hosted the American Pipe-Making Exposition, which brings together many of the best pipe makers from around the nation and challenges them with a specific pipe-making theme. In 2023, the Expo focuses on alternative materials, requiring pipe makers to fashion pipes from something other than traditional briar. Here, Pete Prevost offers his unique take on the 2023 Expo theme, carving an Author from olivewood.

Pete Prevost's foray into smoking pipes began at 18-years-old with a corn cob pipe and a pouch of drugstore tobacco. Prevost spent much of his life as a touring musician, and during this time he began to experiment with crafting pipes from kits. Soon after, he met another pipe maker with a musical background, Jody Davis, who later introduced him to another famous American carver, Todd Johnson. Prevost and Johnson would go on to found the pipe-making workshop BriarWorks in 2013, where Prevost currently serves as president. However, Prevost still finds the time to craft quite a few handmade pipes every year in his signature style, which is typified by compact, muscular shapes that showcase rounded contours and pristine line work.

The Author is a shape that suits Pete Prevost's talents particularly well, as it marries a hearty form to shapely curves. The stout bowl is slightly ovoid, featuring a bulging fore that feels robust in hand and sleek flanks. Furthermore, the ovoid bowl lengthens the profile compared to traditional rounded renditions of the Author bowl, making the transition into the shank seamless, especially along the arcing underside. The thick shank balances the muscular proportions and provides a large area to showcase the gorgeous olivewood grain.

Although olivewood is not as popular as briar, carvers have been making olivewood pipes for just as long. A hardwood like briar, olivewood offers a similar smoke to briar but presents a starkly different grain pattern. Olivewood showcases a singular pattern, concentric ring grain that radiates throughout the stummel. Here, Prevost chooses to further accentuate the ring grain by utilizing a partial sandblast. The left flank is dressed in a smooth finish, highlighting dark-hued ring grain that radiates outward across the blonde background. As the ring grain emanates from the left flank, it begins to wrap around the pipe, creating the appearance of streaky vertical grain on the fore and shank. The circular ring grain reappears on the right flank, which is dressed in a rugged sandblast that exposes the rings with craggy definition. Prevost's choice to use a smooth finish and sandblast further highlights the unique grain of olivewood and is an excellent display of his adroit ability to work with the alternative material. Lastly, this is the first olivewood pipe that Prevost has ever made, and it was fashioned from a block that he procured from Mimmo, a renowned briar cutter and supplier in Italy.