Today I'm showcasing my newest addittion to my collection of pipes from a master indie pipe maker, Paul Menard (@paulspipes on IG). He calls this the "Bent Egg" and you can clearly see why :) Paul lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California and not only is he a indie pipe maker but also a photographer. There have been a few IG-ers that have posted their pipes from Paul and it was only a matter of time before I joined the crowd. The toughest part was deciding what I wanted. Was it going to be a churchwarden? Or how about a poker? Nope. When he posted a pic of the "Bent Egg", I pulled the trigger and bought it from his Etsy website. A few days later this beautiful pipe arrived in the mail. I was expecting to receive a pipe and and maybe a pipe pouch. But little to my surprise was something more...a pipe tamper and pipe stand. I automatically figured out the tamper which is an antler wrapped with a strip of leather. It was Paul who told me that the strip of leather with the stamp "His Love SCM" was a pipe stand! Brilliant! And I thought the leather wrapped around the black leather pipe pouch was just another accent to the entire package...silly me! He also told me "His Love" stands for God's love for us & "SCM" is Santa Cruz Mountains where he lives...brilliant once again! Now to the pipe!
The "Bent Egg" is a little fatty of a pipe which fits perfectly in the palm of my hand. The briar's birdseye and flame grain is stained in red, brown with some purple...just beautiful! There are a couple of "beauty marks" which add a little character to this wonderful pipe. It has a bent acrylic stem and the overall length is 5-1/2" with a 7/8" diameter chamber & 1-3/4" deep! It is a smooth beauty and I've already smoked two bowl to date of Davidoff Flake Medallions and a new tin of Sammy-G's Golden Glow (broken VA flakes). It smokes like a champ!!
Paul is a great guy and has a good thing going here. The overall package is a winner for sure! If you don't already own one of his pipes, you're missing out! So go out and make the buy...you won't regret it!!