Giving credit where credit is due...

[SeeingRed13]

Hey all, thanks for all the positive feedback! The pipe really speaks for itself, but I must say, the job Stephen did is really quite exceptional.

To answer BT's question, the lightly-colored portion was locally sourced by Mr. Downie & is Canadian Birch. You can't tell really tell from the picture, but it has the faintest horizontal grain that really works well to contrast the radiating flame/straight grain. There are also two inserts on either side of the birch wood that Stephen tells me he acquired in a tobacco-for-hardwood trade from South African pipe maker Johan Slabbert of Jobert pipes.

On another note, I smoked the pipe for the first time today & had some Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake, as recommended by many on this site, & both were outstanding. The pipe smokes like a little freight train & the LTF was very pleasant. All in all, it's been an awfully good past few days.