Radice

Radice is a pipe workshop established in the town of Cucciago, in the province of Como in northern Italy. Luigi "Gigi" Radice, whose name the brand carries, was born in 1939 and entered pipe making in the early 1960s, in the nearby town of Cantù, in the workshop of Carlo Scotti, who made Castello pipes. This apprenticeship period instilled in him all the basic habits of the Italian handmade pipe tradition.

From Caminetto to His Own Brand

After his years at Castello, Radice founded Caminetto together with his colleague Peppino Ascorti, a brand that found wide resonance outside Italy as well. By the records, the partnership began in 1968, and in the mid-1970s, with the contribution of Milanese distributor Gianni Davoli, carried the brand into the international market. Radice left the partnership in late 1979 and began production under his own name in early 1980.

The new workshop was a family business from the outset. The founder's father, Paolo Radice, took part in some of the basic stages of production; his son Gianluca was likewise at the bench from the founding years on. Another son, Marzio, joined the business in later years, and the two brothers, having trained alongside their father, gradually took on an ever-larger share of production. Gigi Radice did not step away from his own bench work throughout this period.

Material and Surface Finishes

The workshop sources its raw material from Italian briar cutters and states that it rests the blocks in its own stock for at least three years. Surface finishes are the brand's most recognizable trait; different grades of sandblast and rustication are known by their own names — "Silk Cut," "Rind," and "Underwood" — while smooth-finished pipes are gathered into a separate series. Silver bands and metal rim details are engraved by hand, with a burin; for many years this work was done personally by Luigi Radice. Special pieces with a bamboo-look shank and details in buffalo horn, mouflon horn, and deer antler also feature in the workshop's repertoire.

On the technical side, the most talked-about practice is the oil-curing process, developed by drawing on the method used in old English workshops. A "twin bore" arrangement, with two separate airways drilled in the stem, is likewise one of the workshop's own experiments. Long a user of lucite stems, Radice added ebonite (vulcanite) stems to its production as well, in response to requests from pipe smokers.

Stamps

According to accounts, a small dot-shaped mark indicating the filter arrangement can be found on the stem of Radice pipes. Also according to collector records, from the late 2000s onward a figure was added to the stamps next to the "Hand Made in Italy" inscription, showing the number of years elapsed since the brand's 1980 founding. As far as can be verified, this figure offers a handy reference point for roughly dating a pipe.