The Philosophy of Sandblasting

[NathanA]

I have been giving a lot of thought to finishes because it seems that any time I plan to have a smooth pipe the briar never cooperates. Some sort of little flaw almost always shows up. The nature of briar is obviously the reason why straight grained smooth pipes are priced so high. It is a rarity when a block cooperates to that extent. Now here is where my thinking might be off, so correct me if I am wrong: roughing up the finish, be it rustication in its myriad forms or sandblasting, is a way to draw attention away from the fact that it was not that one in a hundred piece of perfect briar. It seems that rustication, at least among higher grade pipes, makers and collectors, is looked down upon and sandblasting is considered to be almost as high grade as a smooth pipe. Is there a reason for this beyond just the fact that sandblasting is more expensive to perform because of the needed equipment and therefore has the appearance of being more professional?

To boil the question down to its essentials, I guess I would say: what is the purpose of sandblasting? And why is it considered better than rustication?

For my part, I am looking into getting the necessary equipment to blast because I really like the look and feel of a good blast. I also have not really come up with a rustication method that I really like. FWIW, I do not mind smooth pipes that have minor flaws in them. I know that would significantly decrease its value, but is it wrong to finish a smooth pipe for sale that might have one or two very minor sand pits?

Sorry if that was too long winded. Love to hear what you guys think.

[Sasquatch]

The purpose of sandblasting in my opinion is to render briar beautiful in a way that appeals to a further sense - touch, as well as looking interesting/beautiful. Skillfully done, sandblasting shows more about the wood than any other way of finishing. And while you might make a nice blasted pipe out of a piece of wood that isn't quite up to "perfect" smooth standards, you certainly cannot take a piece of junk stummel and blast it to "make it good'. It doesn't work that way!

Rusticating, in its various forms, is doing some of the same things - offering a texture for you thumb to worry, or giving a surface that is less damage-prone than a smooth pipe. But it has basically much less to do with using some intrinsic feature of the wood (grain and growth rings) and much more to do with just... forcing the pipe to look a certain way. You can also hide much larger flaws in the briar with rustication than with blasting.

A fairly important part of high-grade pipes is use of grain in the shaping, you'll see very few 800 dollar pipes that are just cut from a randomly grained block. Conversely, there is a tradition amongst pipe manufactures (Peterson, Savinelli Bjarne... whoever) of basically hiding ugly looking briar by rusticating it. The more obvious "partial rustication" pipes are done just to cover up minor briar flaws.

All that said, I love carved-finish pipes, and I hope never to stop doing them on purely philosophical grounds. Whenever I list a rustic pipe for sale I get a lot of compliments on it and they sell almost immediately. I am not a high-grade pipe guy though - I just build ordinary pipes, so to speak.

So the dis-preference for rustic pipes, aside from purely aesthetic "I don't like how it looks/feels", stems from the fact that at it's heart, rustication is a way of saving a piece of briar that is not really good enough for other finishes.

[RadDavis]

To boil the question down to its essentials, I guess I would say: what is the purpose of sandblasting? And why is it considered better than rustication?

For my part, I am looking into getting the necessary equipment to blast because I really like the look and feel of a good blast. I also have not really come up with a rustication method that I really like..

You've answered your own question right there.

People like good blasts better than rustication for the same reason you do.

Rad

[Sasquatch]

AAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWww come on Rad, the man asked for philosophy - he wants some nebulous half-baked bullshit theory to chew on, you and just come along and give the answer?

I can't abide you sometimes.

[NathanA]

Rad and Todd, thank you for the replies. You both basically put words to the ideas I already had in my head. It is just nice to hear them expressed by people who have a much deeper knowledge of pipes than I currently do.

Rad, you and Bruce never cease to amaze me with how much you convey with so few words. I think you two have made a pact to be helpful, but only if you can do it in ten words or less.