School me on Sea Rock Type Rustication

[Briar Lee]

Sometimes my distinguished, learned and published and widely traveled professor friend gets a fancy Italian sea rock rusticated pipe, and it almost leaves me downhearted not having one, my own self.


No matter how many ancient, oil cured, aged, unstained, unvarnished and unpainted Algerian briar pipes I put up in my buckets I’ve always wanted my very own sea rock style pipe, so I could fetch it when the other boys start taking about their sea rocks.


Well, for $20 I just bought this, and although I’ve never seen a sea rock pipe in my life (they are scarce around Bug Tussle) I think this one might be a sea rock pipe. It’s pretty even if it’s not.






It was made in Spain, and it was unsmoked until I got it, and had a carbon lined bowl.

I can’t fault it in any way, and it smokes as well as any other pipe that’s not Algerian does during break in, and better than most.

My questions are-

Is this a sea rock style rustication?

There’s a line on the shank where the maker masked off the stummel during rustication. Did he use a sand blaster or other machine?

How do they accomplish that texture?

And did they just use dye to get the black parts that black?

In other words—

How Dey Do Dat?

This is the only Made in Spain pipe I own, I know of.

Sing one Willie

Spanish Eyes

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Sometimes my distinguished, learned and published and widely traveled professor friend gets a fancy Italian sea rock rusticated pipe, and it almost leaves me downhearted not having one, my own self.


No matter how many ancient, oil cured, aged, unstained, unvarnished and unpainted Algerian briar pipes I put up in my buckets I’ve always wanted my very own sea rock style pipe, so I could fetch it when the other boys start taking about their sea rocks.


Well, for $20 I just bought this, and although I’ve never seen a sea rock pipe in my life (they are scarce around Bug Tussle) I think this one might be a sea rock pipe. It’s pretty even if it’s not.


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It was made in Spain, and it was unsmoked until I got it, and had a carbon lined bowl.

I can’t fault it in any way, and it smokes as well as any other pipe that’s not Algerian does during break in, and better than most.

My questions are-

Is this a sea rock style rustication?

There’s a line on the shank where the maker masked off the stummel during rustication. Did he use a sand blaster or other machine?

How do they accomplish that texture?

And did they just use dye to get the black parts that black?

In other words—

How Dey Do Dat?

This is the only Made in Spain pipe I own, I know of.

Sing one Willie

Spanish Eyes

Castello Sea Rock style rustication is typically achieved with a tool made with several nails arranged in a group.

If you watch this video, at 6:20 you will see how it’s done:

Your pipe, while rusticated, does not really look like what most people consider “Sea Rock.”

 

[Briar Lee]

Castello Sea Rock style rustication is typically achieved with a tool made with several nails arranged in a group.

If you watch this video, at 6:20 you will see how it’s done:

Your pipe, while rusticated, does not really look like what most people consider “Sea Rock.”

I can see my pipe is a semi wanna be sea rock and not the genuine, closely carved full Monte sea rock.

They also put gouches in my pipe a real deal sea rock doesn’t have.

Whatever stain, varnish or paint they put on any rusticated pipe hides a lot of the grain.

Looking closer, my pipe has a couple of polished places to show off grain.

Those were extra steps, and two more chances to mess it up.

 

[Alejo R.]

No, Sea Rock is handmade, and the rustication on that Salvatella is machine-made. The good news is that you can make your own Sea Rock. All you need is a few large nails, a wire brush, and patience.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Briar can vary in natural colour quite a bit. But, past a certain darkness or hue, you can almost be guaranteed that a pipe has been stained with dye, if only to enhance the grain. Below are some raw blocks.



This is one of my highest grade Savinelli pipes (if not the highest—I have four at the same Eccezionale grade at this time), completely unstained, and unfinished (but sandblasted). It’s pretty light in terms of natural colour.

 

[Briarcutter]

All you need is a few large nails, a wire brush, and patience.

Oh, is that all

 

[Briar Lee]

No, Sea Rock is handmade, and the rustication on that Salvatella is machine-made. The good news is that you can make your own Sea Rock. All you need is a few large nails, a wire brush, and patience.

I agree my Spanish pipe was machine fraized.

It was a cheap pipe. A Spaniard selected a block of briar, and stuck it in a duplicating machine.

But when it was rough turned, the worker had to either polish it out to a smooth pipe, or maybe he decides to take a tool and rusticate it.

That’s a lot of machinery to buy and keep up to rusticate a pipe with a special machine. It didn’t take him long to use a tool and rough it up.

Then he polished the back of the shank to match the tenon end of the stem, and put a flat spot on the bottom and polished that to have it sit up.

Then he taped off the polished parts and dyed or stained or painted it.

I couldn’t do that.

But he did a lot of them that day.

And, whether the stem was blow moulded or hand made is hard to tell. It’s vulcanite, nice and chewy, and a little oxidized. He had to stem all those pipes as well.

There’s no imported briar stamp or Spain stamp on it. It was sold overseas.

This was likely sold to a lonely German maiden to give to her soldier boy, deployed in Europe.

Or at least it’s pretty to think so.

Sing one Willie!

Fraulien

Making a product might not be all that difficult.

Then you have to sell it, and catch a buyer.

They named it Caravel, a nautical name, like the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Caravel - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Also, it’s a Spanish word that doesn’t need translation.

 

[ssjones]

Rustication is a process. Here is a four page discussion, I'm sure there are more here. Typically pipes with flaws in the briar are rusticated to salvage them.

I don't understand rusticated pipes :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

To me it would seem they would be using lower quality briar and rusticate the pipe to hide flaws in the briar? Is it possible manufacturers are doing exactly that? Hiding poor quality briar under rustication and providing no cost savings? How long have rusticated pipes been around? I don't...

pipesmagazine.com

Castello's rusticated finish is cleverly called the Sea Rock.

Castello Sea Rock finish pipes are described as:

“SEA ROCK [Carved Black or dark brown]: This is the lowest grade of the Castello line and is the most common in the USA. Sea Rocks are produced by taking a smooth bowl that has not been “final finished” and surface carving the finish with tools. This “carved” finish is then evened out using a steel wire brush, stained and then waxed. The Natural Vergin carved finish is left unstained and unwaxed as a rule, although we have seen waxed and partially waxed “Vergins”.”