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I am trying to achieve something of a Shell style finish for some of my classic shapes. I know the basic premise of how to do it and have seen videos and pictures of it being done. The problem I am having though is how to buff the blasted surface without getting buffing compound caked into the crevices. Any advice?

Do you have a nylon wheel? I've found that helpful.
Another way to do it - use a firm cotton wheel without any compound. That will remove enough to make it appear as if it's been held for years...........patina, if you will.
I think the vintage patina Dunhills acquire is lovely.
You could also lightly blast some of the black off and then add oxblood.

I like that idea of the plain wheel. Like you I also like the smooth feel and this is ultimately what I want to achieve, getting that colour effect I find a lot easier than the textural effect, sandblasting works good to take off colour, sanding can do it too but neither leave that 30 years of fondling effect.

Thanks Bruce, I'll go through my wheels and sort something out, I think I have an old stitched wheel I could rake out and use for this.

Just a little steel wool or sandpaper will achieve the more pebbled look.

Chris another approach is to stain real dark, let it set, and then take a cloth with alcohol or real thin shellac on it, and gently rub the pipe - the cracks stay darker and you polish off the ridges.

Bruce's idea of a nylon wheel is probably best overall.

IAWP
Steel wool works magic on blasted finishes. Sandpaper isn't as good because it just slides on the surfaces and creates small flats, steel wool reaches deeper and gives a nice patinated effect.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will give them all a go. I have done plenty of pipes before using the alcohol wipe method to create some sublt highlights but recently I have been wanting to get that smooth well rubbed look that only an old blasted pipes seems to have. I know partly it is because back then they only had coarser blasting methods so you lack that crisp definition that I also like about modern pipes. Just trying to mix it up a bit. My first attempt that I mentioned with the buffing did turn out very nice and just the effect I wanted but it was a real bugger to clean out the compound, hopefully future experiments will yield similar but easier to finish results.