Rustication

IPSD 2022 IS COMING! Have you been certified as a Pete Geek?There’s still time! International Peterson [er, Pipe] Smoking Day is Sunday, February 20th. This year’s theme at Peterson Pipe Notes is “Every Peterson Has A Story.” Whether you’re already certified as a Pete Geek and working for your 2022 Merit Badge or a first-timer, send your story and a photo of your pipe to mark@petersonpipenotes.org by Saturday, February 19th. For more details, see the end of last week’s post.   Wojciech Blaszczak In Part 1 of this overview of Kapp & Peterson’s rustication history we looked at the Éire through Dublin eras, from roughly 1937 through 2018. When Laudisi assumed stewardship of the company, the light rustication that was already in place continued, although with the Rosslare Rusticated there was a first attempt at producing something deeper and craggier. In the first half of 2021, craftsman Wojciech Blaszczak created something new that nevertheless had roots to the company’s history. When encountering something new, I often find myself unsure of my like or dislike. Wojciech’s work certainly fell in that category. It reminded me of the Sculpted and Aboriginal rustication done by the Marxman factory on the I.O.M. for Peterson back in the 1980s, but rougher, gnarlier. At some point—and I think it was the SH Christmas Pipes—I felt the flip switch and found myself thinking here was something that's awesome, affordable and gnarly. The mot juste in this case is simply bad ass (see the House Pipe billiard below).  I contacted Production Manager Jonathan Fields and we arranged a zoom with Wojciech about the process. Mark: Wojciech [pronounced voi-czech, I think], I’m so excited about the rustication you and your brother Jaroslaw have been doing that I wanted to talk to you about it, because I’m not sure everyone understands how it’s done and the skill set it takes. Wojciech: When I first came to Peterson, I worked in the warehouse and labeling tobacco as well. After two or three years I moved to the factory to work on pipes. Jonathan: The warehouse was getting quite a bit smaller as we changed over to Laudisi, and we needed help out on the floor so we brought Wojciech out to give us a hand, where we tried him out on one or two different jobs—that he didn’t like [laughs] —which happens. Then he tried out on rustication. At the time, I was doing it along with another lad, the lighter rustication that we had previously done at Peterson’s. Wojciech found his own way of doing the rustication, which is much better. Wojciech: For me, the thought was that the current rustication was too flat. Some of the rustication techniques were very near a shallow sandblast. So we have a pipe—the Donegal Rocky—and I was thinking that should be rockier, deeper, which I think is better than before, more interesting. The Donegal Rocky takes its name from the sea rocks in southwest Donegal, in County Donegal. Shown above, the famous Sea…