K&P rustic pipes

When I went through my rotation not long ago, I was struck by how many rusticated Petes I companion. I hadn't realized the extent of my fascination and love for these pipes, so often ignored or underrated by the Cognoscenti of Pipe Fashion. In the past, Peterson Pipe Notes has looked at the rustication history of the Donegal Rocky and the Laudisi-era launch of the rustic Arans and Rosslares, but this morning I want to contextualize an upcoming interview with current K&P rustication craftsmen (and brothers) Wojciech & Jaroslaw Blaszczak. I thought it might be time to gather together what I know about the company’s long history of rustication, at least in a tentative way. As you read through, take thought of your own rusticated Petes and let me know if you information, facts, opinions and pipes that can further our understanding.  But first, a PSA (Peterson Service Announcement): The 1896 Peterson's Patent Pipes Catalog AND the new paperback of Peterson Pipes: The Story of Kapp & Peterson are now available at SPC. "Get yours while supplies last!" The rusticated pipe is often treated like an ash-heap Cinderella, the sister who hides when the beautiful natural smooth or ring-grain blasts come out. It's impossible to disparage these girls, who were after all elegant, high-class beauties in the  original Perrault and Grimm tellings of the story. But I want to advocate a bit for the gnarly beauty, punk tactility and sheer surly invention possible in a well-rusticated pipe, not least because I call a number of them friends. I’m not alone in my love of the rough pipes, I’m glad to say, as elder statesmen in the hobby like John P. Seiler and William D. Kotyk in their classic NASPC article “We Like Them Rough” championed not only rusticated pipes but the deep sandblasts that were then fairly new to the scene [PDF: Seiler_rough ].  Another guru worth mentioning in this regard is Doctor of Pipes Linwood Hines (founder of CORPS, the Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers and Richmond Pipe Show), who once in a while inducts members into “The Fellowship of Gnarly Briars,” a kind of Southern Comfort-Style secret society of aficianados of all pipes gnarly. If the history of rustication at K&P is sketchy, it’s because these pipes were not seen as important in the scheme of things: they occupied the lower tiers and existed primarily to avoid taking a loss on the briar. So there is very little known about the process in the factory—who did it, when they did it, when it began. Like sandblasting, we do know why it began, as I just implied: to rescue bowls from discard and the company from a financial loss. When sandblasting finally came into its own about twenty years ago through the agency of American blasters like J. T. Cooke and others, there was a look over the shoulder to old factory masters like Dunhill and newer ones like Castello to give artisan blasting a whiff of “apostolic succession”…