Best Rustication?

[Sasquatch]

I'm going to throw out 2 candidates - Bill F's New Era Kaywoodie Thorns, rare though they be, and Radice's "Underwood" treatment are both cool. Bill said Thorns give him tendonitis so I assume it's a hand tooled treatment.

Thorn in front here:



And here's an Underwood:


http://www.smokershaven.com/radice-pipe ... adian.aspx

It looks more carved than "tooled" to me, doing a lot of background stock removal, like a bas relief carving. I like it.

[NathanA]

I do like the Kaywoodie, but for me, Rad's ring grain blast is simply gorgeous. I particularly love the one pictured on the main page of Pipedia.

[Sasquatch]

Oh shit, don't start! Heads roll in the "is sandblasting a rustication technique" debate!

I gotta pull Kurt's Schultz here: I see NOTHING! I know NOTHING! I did not even get out of BED this morning!

[Sasquatch]

Silence is the answer???

I like rusticated pipes. I love em. I really dislike the fact that it seems to have become a way of masking shitty briar instead of a way to express another artistic side of our fine industry. I love Ser Jacopo's jar-top looking carving, I like the wax drip stuff... not so big on the random application of grinder/rotary tool Kaywoodie/Yellobole textures of yore, and I really can't get into the checkerboards and that kind of thing, and the current grabow textures look cheesy to me (and yet sell like hot cakes). I do think they make up an interesting segment of pipey history though.

But I guess I'm alone, or everyone else fears to speak!

Once again, the bony finger of the DHPM is pressed to nonexistent lips??

[T3pipes]

not a fan of rustication, so no real input for this one. I only spoke up to appease Sasquatch.

[Sasquatch]

They've gotten to you too.....

[NathanA]

Heads roll in the "is sandblasting a rustication technique" debate!

OK, so school me a little bit here. If the purpose of blasting is to rough up the surface of the wood, how is that not rustication? I freely admit my newbie-ness, but that doesn't seem like such a stretch to me.

[Sasquatch]

Nathan, it isn't really a stretch, in some ways. Here is the argument that says sandblasting is a form of rustication: You take a stummel, you take a tool to it, and the resulting finish depends upon the piece of briar and the application of the tool, just like ANY OTHER rusticating technique.

The argument against this view is that with basically any other rusticating or carving technique, you are obliterating/ignoring the grain structure of the wood and just simply imposing a new texture, whereas with sandblasting, you are exposing the fine structure of the wood - a ring grain blast is not accidental, and only occurs with the right piece of briar on the right orientation and with a careful blast on top of that.

Perhaps we can just bypass the issue by calling sandblasting a texturing technique, and rustication another subgroup of texturing techniques.

But some guys get pissed if you call a sandblast a rusticated pipe, insisting that there are 3 groups - smooth, blasted, and rusticated.

I don't care one way or the other, personally, but tend to think of sandblasting as a seperate technique from "hard/sharp tool on the wood" style rustications/carving.

I am however, surprised at the lack of interest in these finishes by the bulk of the established carvers that participate here, which is why I'm jokingly egging on this conversation. Perhaps when you are selling pipes for a certain cost, the collector no longer wants a tooled finish? But down where I sell, guys seem to really like it, so I am continuing to develop my techniques, intending to attempt an "underwood" style of carving on my next pipe, I think. Maybe when I've put 15 hours into carving it and sell it for 100 bucks I'll understand more.

[TRS]

I like some rustications, just not either of those. To be honest, the best ones I've seen have been from people on this site; I'm particularly fond of staffwalker's rustications, and there have been a few others I can't specifically recall....

[NathanA]

Thanks for the info Sasquatch, and I would like to second Beatus on Staffwalker's rustications.

[RadDavis]

I am however, surprised at the lack of interest in these finishes by the bulk of the established carvers that participate here, which is why I'm jokingly egging on this conversation. Perhaps when you are selling pipes for a certain cost, the collector no longer wants a tooled finish? But down where I sell, guys seem to really like it, so I am continuing to develop my techniques, intending to attempt an "underwood" style of carving on my next pipe, I think. Maybe when I've put 15 hours into carving it and sell it for 100 bucks I'll understand more.

It's purely economics. Carving, or rusticating takes a lot more time to accomplish, and then you have to sell the pipe for less than a blast, which takes much less time.

Rad

[Sasquatch]

So if I can get to being a really really fast carver, then I got it made.






Bwahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahah


WHEW!

[Sasquatch]

How long for a nice blast, Rad? Hour or two in hand?

BTW in talking to Bill about that pipe, he basically said the Thorns were a pretty limited edition kind of thing, because they took a long time to do and left him sore on top of that.

[RadDavis]

How long for a nice blast, Rad? Hour or two in hand?

BTW in talking to Bill about that pipe, he basically said the Thorns were a pretty limited edition kind of thing, because they took a long time to do and left him sore on top of that.

A nice blast takes about 20-30 minutes. A nice rustication takes about twice that if not longer. And a nice rustication can give you sore and bleeding hands.

Rad

[Sasquatch]

20 minutes! Dude. That's a good SHIT. I woulda thought it was more time consuming than that.

[SimeonTurner]

20 minutes! Dude. That's a good SHIT. I woulda thought it was more time consuming than that.

That's no coincidence. How do you think Rad "blasts" his pipes?

Let's just say he eats a LOT of fiber...

[Sasquatch]

Gives Savinelli's "Brownblast" technique a whole new meaning.

[bregolad]

i like deeper, ones, i.e. tom eltang cuttys. i've been playing with that kind of thing for a while, and i really like it. Not a big fan of the ones you posted though.

http://smokingpipe.net/pipes/new/peters ... t_id=46266

[Sasquatch]

Damn, that's crazy. Looks like a hand carved sandblast. I better step my game up!

[RadDavis]

I wonder why that pipe's listed as a Peterson?

Rad