Peterson sandblast pipes

Those who’ve read the history chapters in The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp & Peterson will know that every time a change of ownership occurs or some great economic calamity affects the pipe-smoking world, Peterson undergoes a sea change in its day-to-day operations and then just gets back to business. . . as it has for 154 years now! Changes have come quite slowly and methodically since Tom Palmer sold the company to Laudisi in June of 2018. The first change in operations visible to collectors came in April, 2019, with the re-introduction of in-house rustication in the Rosslare Classic Rusticated and Aran Rusticated lines. This was followed in May with the launch of the first-ever vulcanite-stemmed Pipe of the Year, a chubby rhodesian Pete Freeks celebrate as the “John Bull.” An 01 Spigot The company has now re-introduced in-house sandblasting to the workshop, and the results can be seen at many Peterson dealers. The company made the move to bring blasting back into the shop because they want their craftsmen to have personal control over what Peterson’s sandblast pipes look like, and being able to do this in-house is also a way to insure the quality levels as well as the design expectations are exactly where they want them at each tier throughout the catalog.     Above and below: first sandblasts, seen in the 1945 catalog Like rustication, sandblasting was originally a way of recovering ebauchon bowls with pits or minor flaws and goes back to Dunhill’s early patented process in the late 1910s. Other English pipe production companies soon followed, as did Peterson with its Kapruf 1 line, which has been documented by Gary Malmberg, my co-author, as early as the Irish Free State era (1922-37). Sandblasting was actually first mentioned in the 1940 “Emergency” catalog and first seen in the System range (Premier and Standard) and the Classic Range in the 1945 catalog pages reproduced above. Seen above from the 1953 Rogers Imports catalog is K&P’s original gateway blast, the Auld Erin, which retailed at $2.50, while the Kapruf was listed in the same catalog at $7.50, three times that price. From the beginning, Peterson used a tiered model, releasing blasts in the upper ranges like the Kapruf and Premier System as well as gateway and Standard System ranges. Jonathan Fields, factory manager, explaining stem bending to a guest The 2019 blasting team in Sallynoggin is comprised of three craftsmen: Jonathan Fields (factory manager), Michail Galimov and William (Willie) Murray. Jonathan and Michail do the blasting, while Willie selects suitable bowls and grades them after blasting. Willie Murray, grading sandblasted bowls Joshua Burgess, managing director, writes: During the first round of grading, Willie identifies bowls that are good candidates for blasting. Those basically go into a ‘to be blasted’ bucket. These are usually bowls that have a good grain structure, but it’s either the type of grain (like ring grain) that isn’t really visible on a smooth piece, or it has good grain but there…