How are Pipes Rusticated?

[Briar Lee]

The vast majority of my everyday pipes are smooth. A few of my fancier pipes are either sandblasted or partially blasted. And I own some carved pipes, mostly lower grade.

But now and again, I get in a rusticated pipe.

Pipe Maker medium squat Bulldog $16 delivered



The rusticated Bulldog smoked as sweet and cool as all the other smooth pipes I own, but it made a stir with my wife and legal assistants and clients. They liked it. They said it was dressy. My wife questions it only cost $16.

This morning I’m examining it, and it was finished like my latest Savenelli sub brand Baronet 616 EX, only fifty or more years earlier. It’s not sand blasted, not carved, something in the middle between.



How dey did dat?

 

[AJL67]

Rustication - Pipedia

pipedia.org

 

[huntertrw]

Often, a hand-tool such as is pictured below is used to create the craggy surface:

 

[TheIronMonkey]

At 6:20 of this video, you can see a Castello pipe being rusticated with a tool with multi-prongs as shown above:

 

[huntertrw]

On the other hand, Dunhill used sand-blasting to create the rusticated surface of their Shell briar pipes.

 

[Briar Lee]

At 6:20 of this video, you can see a Castello pipe being rusticated with a tool with multi-prongs as shown above:

That is exactly what I wanted to see, thank you for posting the video.

Pipe Maker and Baronet are both sub brands. When made the worker was hoping for a perfect, smooth pipe, a Lee or a Savinelli.

If the pipe needed too many fills, he might sand blast it or try carving out the bad spots.

But if it only lacked beautiful grain, out comes the rusticating tool, on goes the dark stain, and it’s a sub brand.

But rustication can be so beautiful, I’ll bet there’s high dollar rusticated pipes.


Thanks again.

 

[Briar Lee]

On the other hand, Dunhill used sand-blasting to create the rusticated surface of their Shell briar pipes.

There are many high dollar sand blasted pipes.

Dunhill was intentionally making, a shell briar pipe.

I’ll have to dig, but most all if not all my rusticated pipes are sub brands.

To put it another way, every pipe can be rusticated with a hand tool, but not all pipes can be sand blasted.

 

[huntertrw]

Given my druthers, I prefer a rusticated pipe. I like the look of most, and I believe that they may smoke slightly cooler than any identical smooth-finished ones.

 

[huntertrw]

Dunhill was intentionally making, a shell briar pipe.

Yes, it was intentional, in order to make the best of flawed pieces of briar, for Dunhil did not make "seconds."

 

[daveinlax]

carving out the bad spots.

I always say the Worst Briar make the Best Sea Rocks! The under carving that you can see in the video is The Key to a great rusticated pipe. IMO the Best Looking rusticated pipes are the craggy Sea Rocks. It looks like Rousch and Butera use this same process.

 

[Briar Lee]

Given my druthers, I prefer a rusticated pipe. I like the look of most, and I believe that they may smoke slightly cooler than any identical smooth-finished ones.

In theory the rusticated, carved or blasted pipe has more surface area, and smokes a tiny bit cooler. It’s sort of the same idea as fins on an air cooled engine.

If nothing else it’s a broken surface where the heat would not be concentrated on your hand holding the pipe.

But mostly it’s for final finishing, for show.

But my Pipe Maker and Baronet were bottom shelf pipes when new.

The Baronet 616 sold for half price of a rusticated Savenelli.

The Pipe Maker likely cost a dollar, when a Two Star Lee was five dollars.

The rustication on both is beautiful, but I doubt it was intended when first carved.

 

[Chasing Embers]

In theory the rusticated, carved or blasted pipe has more surface area, and smokes a tiny bit cooler.

Only on the outside. The surface of the pipe can't change the combustion temperature of the tobacco.

 

[Briar Lee]

Yes, it was intentional, in order to make the best of flawed pieces of briar, for Dunhil did not make "seconds."

As I understand what Dunhill was trying to do was harden briar, by the patented shell process.

And really soft briar couldn’t be blasted. It had to have grain, to be worked.

Tool rustication, seems to be a way to save flawed briar.

But neither my Pipe Maker or Baronet have any visible fills, although as sub brands they could.

They just couldn’t have made the grade as smooth pipes.

 

[Chasing Embers]

And really soft briar couldn’t be blasted. It had to have grain, to be worked.

The soft grain is what's blasted away.

 

[Briar Lee]

Only on the outside. The surface of the pipe can't change the combustion temperature of the tobacco.

That burning ember gets cherry red, nearly a thousand degrees.

On all pipes, meers, briar, clay or cob, you can’t hold on to more than 140 degrees for long.

Whatever radiator effect the broken surface has is extremely small, only in theory.

It would be the difference between a carved sultan meer and a smooth meer.

Mostly it’s that sultan looking at you.

 

[Chasing Embers]

They just couldn’t have made the grade as smooth pipes.

They can now.

 

[Briar Lee]

The soft grain is what's blasted away.

Yes, and it needs hard briar in the grain structure, or it just all gets blasted.

The contrast is what makes it purty.

Notice how quick the skilled worker took a hand tool and carved out the rusticated finish. He adapted to whatever hardness the briar possessed.

But my Pipe Maker and Baronet are both stained almost black. He didn’t want me to see the grain structure at all, just that tooling.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

That is exactly what I wanted to see, thank you for posting the video.

Pipe Maker and Baronet are both sub brands. When made the worker was hoping for a perfect, smooth pipe, a Lee or a Savinelli.


But rustication can be so beautiful, I’ll bet there’s high dollar rusticated pipes.

You’re very welcome.

There are rusticated pipes that command higher prices.

To paraphrase some info provided by @Ag®o to me earlier this year: The Savinelli Punto Oro Corallo di Mare (raw and unfinished) and the Savinelli Capri (a less valuable version that is stained and polished) have the same processing and have the same root from Ogliastra, the province of Nuoro in Sardinia. The inventor of this finish (and of the balsa filter) was Mr. Mario Vettoruzzo, an employee of the Rossi company (now part of Savinelli). The process of this unique finish has never been disclosed. The Ogliastra root is no longer available and Mr. Vettoruzzo has retired—as a result, the Corallo finish is very desirable, and tends to command a premium (although estate bargains can be found). The finish has never, to my eye, been truly replicated—similar, but, not quite the same.

@georged explores recreating the finish in this thread at Pipe Smokers Den:

Artisan to recreate Savinelli's Corallo finish?

Hey folks, I'm wondering if any of you know any pipe makers capable of reproducing Savinelli's Corallo finish. Early in my pipe smoking days I missed out on a 920 Corallo and I've wanted that aesthetic ever since, but I don't buy many factory pipes anymore and if I'm going to drop a chunk of...

pipesmokersdens.com

George achieves a decent approximation, but, it lacks the weirdly organic, unique bulbous quality of the Corallo. The root itself might be a big factor.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yes, and it needs hard briar in the grain structure, or it just all gets blasted.

Soft grain is the newer growth you can't have soft grain burl without hard beneath it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

That burning ember gets cherry red, nearly a thousand degrees.

On all pipes, meers, briar, clay or cob, you can’t hold on to more than 140 degrees for long.

Whatever radiator effect the broken surface has is extremely small, only in theory.

It would be the difference between a carved sultan meer and a smooth meer.

Mostly it’s that sultan looking at you.

My pipes rarely get more than noticeably warm on the surface regardless of surface or material. You may be smoking too hot.