I would like to share my rustication technique since its easy and requires only tools that everyone has lying around. It takes some elbow grease and time to get it right, but the results are very nice.
I bought a cheapo estate pipe, smooth dublin shape. It was super gunked up and had a dull green oxidized stem. I used a swiss army knife saw blade to chew into the briar all over the pipe until all the parts that I wanted rusticated were done. I marked out areas to not rusticate before I started and left the rim and maker's mark intact. I also left a thin rim near the tennon so the stem would still fit in flush against the briar.
After rusticating, I stained it with a combination of shoe dye, dark furniture polish, and carnauba wax and used a flame to melt the carnauba into the crevices. I then soaked the stem in bleach overnight to remove the oxides, sanded it, and polished it with my dremel and some red rouge polish.
I'm still working on deghosting, it has a mild remnant of lakelands living deep inside.
I also never heard of this pipe's maker, so if anyone knows anything about PortoBello pipes I would appreciate any knowledge about the pipe. It is stamped Porto Bello Imported Briar France 28.
I bought a cheapo estate pipe, smooth dublin shape. It was super gunked up and had a dull green oxidized stem. I used a swiss army knife saw blade to chew into the briar all over the pipe until all the parts that I wanted rusticated were done. I marked out areas to not rusticate before I started and left the rim and maker's mark intact. I also left a thin rim near the tennon so the stem would still fit in flush against the briar.
After rusticating, I stained it with a combination of shoe dye, dark furniture polish, and carnauba wax and used a flame to melt the carnauba into the crevices. I then soaked the stem in bleach overnight to remove the oxides, sanded it, and polished it with my dremel and some red rouge polish.
I'm still working on deghosting, it has a mild remnant of lakelands living deep inside.
I also never heard of this pipe's maker, so if anyone knows anything about PortoBello pipes I would appreciate any knowledge about the pipe. It is stamped Porto Bello Imported Briar France 28.