School me on Smooth Sandblasted Rustication

[Briar Lee]

There are three main types of finishes on my briars, smooth, carved , and sandblasted. The smooth ones can be highly polished or matte, the carved ones can be worked with cutting tools with lines, gouches, cuts, or finely tooled until they appear nearly sandblasted, usually called rusticated, The sandblasted ones show variations from deep to lightly blasted, I have a few with blasted panels.

But then there’s this Lorenzo.



It’s an extra large Pot that appears at arm’s length to have been rusticated by carving, but on closer examination it’ was sandblasted and then polished , and stained with Lorenzo’s orange stain and some almost black stain.




There’s texture to the blasted areas but they’ve more or less been smoothly polished.

I think it’s quite attractive and it’s certainly different.

How Dey Do Dat?

And who started that?

 

[sasquatch]

That's been sandblasted and stained, then the high spots knocked off with either sandpaper or simply a buffing wheel, leaving a contrast color and texture behind.

 

[MattRVA]

I’ve always loved old worn out sandblasted pipes and I’ve also seen what you are referring to. I like the look quite a bit and there’s something about an old worn out sandblasted pipe.

 

[Briar Lee]

I have several other Lorenzo pipes and all have an orange stain that absolutely doesn’t rub off, and they tend to be larger pipes. The Tigre is made in Italy presumably by Lorenzo, when he was in charge.

What’s so unusual about this one is I can see the texture, but i can‘t feel much, if any roughness on the rusticated parts.

After a deep blast, Lorenzo had to polish the stummel smooth and then stain the blasted parts a dark black with the smooth parts stained orange.

Was Lorenzo the only maker to do that?

It looks hand rusticated, sort of like a Custombilt, until you get close.

He might have blasted it all and stained it all black, then polished it until the black parts were a whisker deep below the polished parts and stained the polished parts his trademark orange.

I can’t say I’ve ever seen another like it. Lorenzo was not a high dollar pipe brand, and this had to be mostly machine made. There are a lot more of these out there, made on the same line.

 

[bullet08]

Someone looked at the pipe, and couldn't make up his or her mind as to how to finish it.

 

[Briar Lee]

Someone looked at the pipe, and couldn't make up his or her mind as to how to finish it.

It was a way, using first a sand blaster and then a buffing wheel, and two colors of stain, to make a pipe you can sit on a stump and admire the grain and forget to smoke it.

Lorenzo didn’t need skilled hand carvers to obtain that dramatic hand rusticated look.

Overall it’s a smooth polished and stained pipe, with wild black graining.

It was well named the Tiger.

 

[anotherbob]

Someone looked at the pipe, and couldn't make up his or her mind as to how to finish it.

my brebbia has a similar thing going on. Different stain color. My impression is the blast is where there were pits.

 

[alaskanpiper]

He might have blasted it all and stained it all black, then polished it until the black parts were a whisker deep below the polished parts and stained the polished parts his trademark orange.

It’s this one, but not exactly in that order. The lighter stain is under the darker stain, both done after blasting, then on the higher parts of the texture, the black stain is sanded off, revealing the lighter stain which is then polished. It’s not terribly uncommon, and can be seen on everything from old GBD Granitans to newer artisan pipes like Scottie Piersel’s relief grain finishes.

 

[Briar Lee]

It’s this one, but not exactly in that order. The lighter stain is under the darker stain, both done after blasting, then on the higher parts of the texture, the black stain is sanded off, revealing the lighter stain which is then polished. It’s not terribly uncommon, and can be seen on everything from old GBD Granitans to newer artisan pipes like Scottie Piersel’s relief grain finishes.

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Thanks for that information.

Lorenzo would have had the production pipe GBD Granitan to guide him.

GBD Granitan, Yay or Nay? :: British Pipes

I made a wrong turn last month and ended up on that damned auction site. Then this Granitan arrived at my house. I haven't smoked it yet. There's a 1/32" gap between the stem & stummel, so I need to get drunk and bust out the grinding tools until it's flush. you might be able to just...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[huntertrw]

Briar Lee:

If I recall correctly from my tenure in metal fabrication, sandblast media is available in different shapes, sizes, and hardnesses. If, indeed, this is a blasted finish, then perhaps the artisan used a larger media with appropriate hardness, in combination with a deft hand on the trigger and careful attention to the blast-pressure, in order to produce this unique pattern.

Whatever the case may be, I like it!

 

[Chasing Embers]

 

[LeafErikson]

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I swear man you’d be able to clench a Ford F150 if you found a way to put a stem in it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I swear man you’d be able to clench a Ford F150 if you found a way to put a stem in it.

Maybe. I'm not allowing myself to open this until my birthday. No plans of smoking it but curious if I can clench it.

 

[Pipeoff]

Great pipe but I don’t buy same to look at.

 

[Briar Lee]

Briar Lee:

If I recall correctly from my tenure in metal fabrication, sandblast media is available in different shapes, sizes, and hardnesses. If, indeed, this is a blasted finish, then perhaps the artisan used a larger media with appropriate hardness, in combination with a deft hand on the trigger and careful attention to the blast-pressure, in order to produce this unique pattern.

Whatever the case may be, I like it!

Looking close at this, it’s a polished smooth pipe with grain enhanced by blast and stain.

Plus it’s a factory pipe where they had to make a whole bunch of them. No extremely skilled artisans were involved. Machines and jigs were used to a great extent.

When they finished , you see the “Tiger stripes” just a thousandth of an inch or so below the polished surface.

These had to sell for more than a standard Lorenzo, but not so much they were priced out of reach of seventies university professors.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Great pipe but I don’t buy same to look at.

The chamber isn't even two inches deep. Too shallow for me to enjoy smoking but it'll make a nice display piece.