Adam Davidson, 29, of North Myrtle Beach is already a name on the lips of fashionable pipe puffers and collectors alike.

But make no mistake, these are not your grandfather’s briars or cobs. They are smoldering objects d’art. Davidson is a pipe artisan with a recognizable style and a signature brand that features a sandblasted almond bowl of red and yellow tones, vulcanite stem, and milky wafer carved from 15,000-year-old woolly mammoth ivory.

Trendy, twenty-to-forty somethings are driving the newfound popularity and re-gentrifying of pipe smoking, with a definite nod to nostalgia. “People usually remember the sweet smell of their grandfather’s pipe and the ritual of packing in the tobacco. Today, pipe buyers are looking for details, exotic materials, and a regal look to them,” says Davidson. “They’re a fashion accessory, and collectors are looking for handcrafted pieces that will become an antique, an artifact.”

Davidson himself started packing a pipe while attending Perdue University. After earning a degree in industrial design, he plied his hand at blacksmithing and ceramics. What may seem a disparate set of education and skills was exactly what smokingpipes.com and Lowcountry Pipe & Cigar needed in a new hire who could understand the “industrial” elements of a good tobacco pipe and how to repair one.

Two years later, in 2007, Davidson took to his garage with a burl of heather tree from Europe and began to fashion the first of his 200 custom pipes, commanding around $350 for a “simple, sandblasted pipe” up to $1,200 for a “character-rich blowfish.”

“It’s very expensive and the artistry is determined by your materials,” Davidson explains. “A typical block of carving wood is 4-by-3 inches with bark, imported from Italy, France, or Algeria. Or it can be a knuckled bamboo root from the Orient. It can be any shape with any type of grain or growth rings. You have to be able to look at it and see how it can become a beautiful bowl . . . either that or you have to throw it out and you’ve lost all that money.”

“It’s a very exact art. The stem must be comfortable, you can’t be even a millimeter off or a pipe aficionado will know it.”

While young minions are frequenting hookah bars and getting bit-fitted for personal custom pipes, tobacco purveyors are fueling the craze with fragrant blends from licorice to vanilla and everything in between. “Let’s face it, pipes are aristocratic,” says Davidson. “They have a great smell and taste, and you don’t throw it away like you would a cigar.”

For an industrial design grad with an artistic eye and steady hand, pipe crafting just may be the perfect calling.

To view Adam's pipes or to put in a custom order, contact the artist via e-mail at adam@adamdavidson-design.com.