POY2024

After a dearth of special releases this year, the wait for the Pipe of the Year seemed like it would never end, but lads, we’re almost there.  I just received four samples and want to pass along some photos and early intel. I know photography has commenced at SPC but don’t think it’s been completed, so the drop probably won’t be this week, but maybe next.  Usually there’s something from K&P on social media about a week before, but apart from one non-official social media photo of a rustic pipe that somehow escaped in the past week or two, no one has reported any sightings to me. No information on the drop date or the exact finishes to be offered, but I'll post another Special Bulletin if I find out anything. I do know video was shot in the factory several weeks back and I believe it was of the making of the POY, so we can expect that at some point on the Smokingpipes blog, along with some conversation from Josh or Andy and the gang. The big news this year, as you can read in the “Chat” brochure above, is that the POY is a brand-new System shape, the first since the Darwin / B42 of 2009 fifteen years ago (not sure where the “Chat” writer got thirty years). K&P Pipe Specialist Giacomo Penzo’s original design is a beauty, squarely within Peterson's design language yet offering some new riffs as well.  The shank is a thing of beauty and when that’s added to the wear-gap B stem we've got something fresh and frankly amazing. It always helps me to understand a shape by first seeing it from its 2D right-flank or obverse. From that I can get an idea of the proportions and angles of bowl, shank and stem, but to do that it's best to see it in as pure a silhouette as possible--something you'll never get in a glamor shot: Whew! Get a load of this shape.  Seen from this vantage, a lot becomes clear. The shank and stem pair seamlessly with the bowl to create that "golden mean" feeling of Binet's formula--what we talked back in the Fibonacci sequence back in Post #297.  The B or tapered wear-gap stem pairs with the shank to produce a swan neck recalling shapes like the X69 back in the Early Republic and the X160 from Patent era, but also radiates that "1896 Patent Catalog" vibe, something that Charles Peterson himself might have come up with.  Fans of bulldogs and bent rhodesians should feel ripples of familiarity wafting their way. Penzo, friends, is an Artist, and we're so fortunate to have him batting for our favorite team. The visual and felt weight of the POY2024 is right there with the full-size Systems: shapes like the 306, 308, 309, in other words of classic dimensions. If you’re comfortable cradling and / or clenching those shapes and the B42 and 9, this will feel like an old friend. If I understood…