Corrado (Corrado Frignani)

Corrado is the signature Italian maker Corrado Frignani puts on his pipes. Pipe making is a second pursuit for Frignani; his interest, said to have begun as a smoker in the 1970s, turned into production only in 2004, when he picked up his first briar block.

Sources note that he has run a graphic design and advertising photography studio of the same name since 1983; this information rests on a single promotional text. The earliest pieces numbered in the maker's own published lists date to 2005.

The Distinguishing Design: "Hoof"

What introduced the Corrado name to pipe circles is a small intermediate piece fitted between the shank and mouthpiece, called the "Hoof." Its function is twofold: to collect the moisture carried along with the smoke, and to lower the temperature of the smoke somewhat. The usual way of achieving this is to cut a fixed chamber or an extended channel into the pipe; the difference here is that the piece can be removed at will. When taken out, the shank and mouthpiece fit directly together and the pipe keeps its original silhouette. This is exactly where the difficulty lies: the three parts must fit perfectly both attached and detached, meaning two separate mating surfaces must be calculated for every pipe. The promotional text on Pipedia describes the mechanism as "patented," but no independent patent record could be found. On the maker's Italian-language pages the piece is also called "salivino" and is denoted by a separate abbreviation in the naming of pipes.