In September of 2017, Peterson released a custom line in collaboration with SPC, the Arklow, which I praised at the time as one of the most original and eye-catching gateway lines Peterson had released, due in part to the twin finishes (walnut and burgundy), the inclusion of some B shapes and the concave, slightly shortened, smooth-finished rims.
The 2020 Arklow XL02 “Fat Bottom”
Just a few weeks ago, Peterson re-introduced the Arklow, this time as one of its standard lines. Peterson’s release of a successful or innovative custom line into the world market isn’t a new practice but goes back at least to the early 1970s when the Iwan Ries-Peterson “Dunmore” Premier Unmounted System (which Iwan Ries persisted in misspelling as “Dunmoor”) became available as a regular line. A number of Mario Lubinski’s special Italian market lines have also gone into general production—the Kapp-Royal, Ashford and nickel-banded Aran to name three.*
This time out, while there aren’t twin stains and B shapes to choose from, Peterson is showcasing its ever-heightening skills in sandblasting. The two I’ve seen in person (the 69 and 304 shown in this post) are far beyond anything from the 2017 issue, with a felt tactility and seemingly infinite blast variations.
The bowl stamps this time out are, of course, done by hand—laser-engraved stamping now being a thing of the past. The arched fork-tail “P” PETERSON’S over DUBLIN stamp is used, with ARKLOW in caps (and not quite a straight line) with the bowl number stamp nearby.
I was pleasantly surprised by the nickel ferrules. They feature the original maker’s mark of K&P over PETERSON—which is not the surprise. What surprised me was the high gloss finish. When a Pete geek friend first saw them about half-way across the room she said, “Are those sterling?” In the past several years, I’ve been known to spin my new nickel-mount Petes on the buffer to bring up the shine but on the new Arklows there’s no need, which is fantastic. (You know I have to insert a plea that maybe it won’t be too long until we’ll see the return of the three classic nickel-mount marks of shamrock, fox hound and round tower.)
Shape 68 Kapp-Royal (top); 68 Arklow 2017 (middle) and 68 Arklow 2020 (bottom)
If you look carefully at the illustration above and flip back to the 2017 Arklow post, you’ll see two other differences between the 2017 and 2020 Arklows. The 2020 Arklow mouthpieces aren’t hot-foil stamped and many of the 2017 shapes were shortened at the crown by 2-4 mms. This gave a very distinctive look to the 2017 pipes, but it is more than compensated for in the 2020’s new depth of (in-house) blasting and individuation.
I’ve seen fifteen shapes so far, all from the standard catalog: 03, 05, 65, 68, 69, 120, 221, 230, 304, 338, 406, B10, B11, X220, XL02 [fat bottom] and XL02 [ball]. Once again, if you’re a fan of the XL02, be aware the Fat Bottom and the Ball are both available.
There is also a bit of variation in the stain color, which isn’t any kind of problem since that just adds to the uniqueness of each pipe. You can see what I mean in these two crown detail photos:
At $115 MRSP and $82.80 at SPC, if you’re a fan of Peterson’s army mounts you might want to consider adding one of these imminently affordable beauties.
The town of Arklow c. 1916
Incidentally, the Arklow, like almost all of Peterson’s lines, is named after an Irish place–in this case one of the oldest towns, in County Wicklow on the eastern coast. The Vikings established it in the 9th century CE, although many archeologists believe the Vikings built their town on a site established as early as the 2nd c. CE.
XL02 Ball
Many thanks to Peterson
Photos courtesy Smokingpipes.com
and Chas. Mundungus
406
*The Burren line is a rare example of the concept backfiring. In my opinion it happened because the original on which it was based, the Italian-market Sansonne Rogha limited edition was an unblemished sandblast “natural virgin” System with sterling mount. It was appropriated as a gateway army mount line. This might not have happened if the directors had had a deeper appreciation for this uniquely Italian concept or been pipe smokers. Or both.
X220
B10
120
338
B11
221
65
Good morning everyone, we have beautiful weather here and I have a day off.
Smoking my B42 with some Peterson Flake & good coffee. Get my iPad started and tada new Blog entry. Very nice pipes and the sandblasting looks awesome. They finally show off what can be done. I love to see more of this good stuff. I hope you are all doing well.
Sounds like a good way to begin the morning, Martin! Pipes and coffee are definitely helping me cope with the crisis here in the US.
Good Morning. Peterson Pipe Notes comes so often that it is almost as when we had a newspaper arriving early every morning.
( I dropped a 314 Premier once on the pavement in Arklow))
Did it break, Jorgen? And what were you doing in Arklow–it’s a bit out of the way even for tourists, isn’t it?
I love a funnel chamfered rim on a pipe, it gives it that “something extra” touch. Interestingly, I dislike the look of most convex or dome rimmed pipes, barring true meerschaum gourd calabashes. The B10 looks better with a funnel chamfered rim to my eye. Mark, when you mention the Burren backfiring, do you mean they did not sell well? Curiously, as much as I am drawn away from sandblast (at least ones that have sub-standard briar, and especially virgin unfinished ones) I was/am strangely attracted to the Burren line, even with a nickel instead of sterling mount (understandable for… Read more »
John, my problem with the Burren was simply that the Italian concept of a perfect, unblemished sandblast bowl wasn’t observed. Castello does the natural virgen. Here in the US in the 1950s there was a craze for quite a while for “natural” pipes–that is, with nothing but carnauba wax on the bowl. But the Burren is kind of a “warts and all” approach. You can see the root marks, blemishes, etc. That’s all I meant. I think the line actually sold very well. But I’ve never been able to accommodate my smoking cadence and style to a fish tail army… Read more »
It seems like a bit of a tweener. Either do a higher end release with excellent blasts and sterling mounts or make it a true budget pipe (like the wonderful unfinished Savinellis). I would certainly buy a Burren if I found one with a nice enough blast and bowl, but haven’t come across any that would qualify. The Roghas I’ve seen sure are spectacular, though.
I’d imagine as they hone their talents in the blasting cabinet we’ll see something you can’t live without. Or me, either!
Oh, btw, I am not a fan of that “fat bottom” XL02 ??
It seems there may be “fat bottom” shape of the 230 and/or 221 now also ??
I went over to SPC.com and took another look…Some of the new the 221‘s have the weird “fat bottom”, I did not spot any of the 230’s with that abomination.
Actually, the 221 Arklow you have pictured here is a “fat bottom”….it’s just not right? It looks like there are some 68’s with this weird cut as well?????? It really messes with the flowing lines of the original shapes. Speaking of which, what is so tough about getting a new “Mark Twain” and similar pipes cut identically to the original shapes? Mark Twain’s pipe, and pipes from that era have a much better shape in my opinion, even the 2019 POY “Chubby” 999 shape did not fill the void that was the original. I surmise that there must be some… Read more »
Well, the MT commemorative never was an original Patent shape (the 14). It was an homage based on Samuel Clemens’ burnt shape 14 at the Hannibal Boyhood Museum. That is, 2-3 mm shorter than the 14 (which it was). The story’s in the Peterson book. (Wasn’t supposed to say that!) 🙁 The 2019 Chubby is NOT the original 999. If you look at the blog post, I give the shape number toward the bottom. It’s an XL661, I believe. And to my way of thinking you’re right: the POY2019 didn’t fill the void of the original for me. Which is… Read more »
It sure looks like SPC is upping the game at Peterson! Unfortunately, none of those shapes are in my wheelhouse. I’m still waiting on news on the new 9BC.
Al, if I have my facts right, everyone goes back to work at the factory next Monday. I think they were fairly close getting the first batch done, which means we should see the POY2020’s at about the same time we used to until just a few years back–around the end of June, first of July?
What does the word ‘Arklow’ mean? It’s a beautiful name!
Hi Joseph, the name of the Irish town “Arklow” is from Old Norse Arnkell-lág, meaning ‘meadow of Arnkell’,[3] Irish: An tInbhear Mór, meaning ‘the great estuary’)–as it’s right on the sea.
Thank you Mark. ‘Meadow of Arnkell’…, beautiful image. Should be a name of an Irish ballad as well.
These are quite cool. They seem perfect for those of us who liked the style and price point of this years St. Patrick’s pipes, but balked at the green stain. Another accessible gem for Peterson! My only beef is the lack of straight shapes and deeper chambers. That said, I have been in the market for a 120, which is a quintessential Dublin shape in the same way the 150 (which I wish was available here) is an ideal bulldog. Just my opinion, of course, but I think Peterson nails those two shapes
Mark, how do the army mounts handle condensation? This mounting style creates a small chamber for moisture to collect in, correct?
In my opinion–and it’s just mine–not well. They smoke hot to me. I smoke virginias and vapers mostly, so if I pick up an army mount or army mount spigot F/T I’ve got to smoke something with burley in it (like Mixture Flake) or really slow my cadence down. Having said that, I do have 2 army mounts with old-style P-Lips and the graduated bore–Gawith made them for me when they were making outsourced mouthpieces for Peterson around 2008 or so. Those smoke superbly. The recent P-Lip army mounts do NOT have a graduated bore and while they smoke better… Read more »