Sherlock Holmes Series

At the Chicago show when I was oogling (that is, unfortunately, the correct word) the two Supreme Sandblasts Smokingpipes had on its table—a 9s System and a Sherlock Holmes Watson—Gary Hamilton and myself began asking Sykes about the Supreme grade but got sidetracked. When I got back from the show, I followed up with Sykes and the information he shared was so fascinating that I felt sure you would enjoy it, as well as a quick history of the Supreme grade at K&P—or at least, what I know of it so far. Before reading the interview with Sykes, you should take a look at the short video Sykes and Kaz Walters (Laudisi’s National Account Manager) made when the Supreme grade was relaunched in the spring of 2019: https://youtu.be/GxGUvhAn0Pk Sykes: We grade bowls into various grades, one of those is ‘for sandblasting.’ This was one of our first big changes, to insert graded sandblasts where previously there was only one sandblast grade and it wasn’t very good. And of course we wanted to be really, really picky on what gets the Supreme stamp, whether for smooth or sandblasts. A 9s SBS (Sandblast Supreme) System After bowls are graded ‘for sandblasting,’ we then blast them and grade them into four buckets, plus rejects. The overwhelming majority are just basic sandblasts. The next level up, which we unimaginatively call SB+, we use for nicer series, like Newgrange, Deluxe System Sandblast, special series like Rua, etc. After that comes PSB, which get stamped PSB. And then SB Supreme at the top. grading ratios are roughly 83% SB, 12% SB+, 3% PSB and 0.25% SBS, with a couple percent rejected because things go wrong. The first SBS, a gold band 120 finished with a light application of oil Mark: How are the SBS bowls finished? Do you use oil, Irish pixie dust or what? Sykes: We’re not using oil; we were in some early tests, but we abandoned that part of the process because it made them darker than we preferred. The SB Supreme bowls are blasted along with other bowls being blasted. When they’re used, they’re fitted and mounted. Then they’re blasted again very lightly to just clean them up from production. Then they’re buffed gently to give them a little shine and to lay on a thin layer of wax. Mark: How many SBS Systems have you made so far? A B42 SBS System Sykes: Only five—yes 5—of the Supreme System Sandblasts, with a couple more in production now. Mark: How does that fit in with the Sherlock Holmes and Classic Range Supremes? SBS Sherlock Holmes Professor Sykes: We’ve graded out 83 Supreme Sandblast bowls so far. Of those released, 49 have been Classic Range, 19 Sherlock Holmes, 5 Systems and the remainder still in production. Mark: Silver vs. gold? XL90 Gold SBS Sykes: There’s been 18 gold bands so far, the rest sterling. Mark: So how many Supremes out of all the bowls sandblasted? Sykes: We got 83 Supreme Sandblasts out of…