46. The Derry Rustic Line: “Now You See It. . .”
When the Peterson new lines for 2016 were announced last April, I enthused about seeing all the “Killer B” shapes together in one place – the Derry Rustic line. Hard-to-find B shapes, Peterson’s trademark military-mount, rusticated two-tone finish, milk chocolate swirl acrylic mouthpiece – what’s not to like? They began trickling in at U.S. etailers in mid-August, and while several Peterson sites still don’t offer them, I’ve sited 15 of the 25 announced shapes and thought the time might be right to take a closer look. From the start I thought the line might be “hard-wired to . . . self-destruct” – to borrow the title from Metallica’s upcoming album. I say this because for many years Peterson has routinely taken their leftover B shape bowls – what’s left from special collections and Limited Editions –and channeled them into Mario Lubinski projects for Italy (the Kapp-Royal high-grades, Kapreis and Rock of Cashel sterling military mounts) and the St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, and the old July 4th annual editions throughout the rest of the world. What a fantastic idea. We saw it first in a big way in the Sherlock Holmes collections when Peterson issued an entire line – the Kinsale – to accommodate bowls that weren’t up to the SH quality specifications. More recently we saw it in the release of the 2010 Mark Twain Collection’s Large Tankard in a smooth finish, vulcanite F/T for the 2015 St. Patrick’s Day line. I spoke with factory manager Tony Whelan a few weeks ago, and he confirmed my hunch: the Derry Rustic was introduced specifically to accommodate the use of discontinued bowls, especially the remaining Limited Edition / POYs. From a collector’s standpoint, it’s pretty sweet to be able to pick up some of these almost-gone shapes at less than half their original cost. Sure, they aren’t smooth finishes, but by now most pipemen know the therapeutic value of a good rustic or blast rolled between thumb and fingers is often preferred at the end of a difficult day. A Closer Look While the Derry line is unified in the stain treatment, nickel mount and acrylic stem color, by the nature of what it’s designed to do (use up discontinued bowls), if you look closely at the individual pipes (see below) you’ll notice the rustification treatment varies from shape to shape: some are fairly craggy, others have the more machined, “pine cone” rustification that gives dimensionality and visual interest but little hand-feel. B35 Rustification: True Hand-Feel B60 Rustification: Visual Density There is also wide variance in the rod patterns, which lends a certain unique character to each piece. My Dad wanted a B35 for his birthday, and the more of them I saw, the more I hesitated, looking for just the right swirl pattern. You can see the two extremes in these B35 and B60 stem comparisons: The laser-engraved COMs are getting better. I didn’t get the light quite right on these, but with the naked eye they’re crisp and give all…