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"If everyone in town comes to my plant and takes a free sample of what I make, I'll go bankrupt. But if everyone in the world takes a free sample of one of my ideas (or at least one of my good ones), we'll all get richer." - Seth Godin
It's almost impossible to start talking about sandblasting briar pipes without first mentioning Alfred Dunhill. In The Art of the Sandblast, one of a series of articles by R.D. Field, he opens with the textbook definition of the process: "a stream of sand projected by compressed air (as for engraving, cutting, or cleaning glass or stone)." It's an industrial procedure, but Dunhill made it organic, romantic even: "a combination of heat and sand." Field commented, "From nature... sort of like being lulled to sleep by the surf as you lie on a sunny beach."
Shortly after Alfred Dunhill's death (the very same year, in fact), the marque hired a new capstan-lathe operator, a young boy of 15 by the name of Bill Taylor. Bill continued to work for the company until the mid-80's, when he sought to embark on his own and to establish a brand with its own niche in the market. Bill had gained a deep appreciation for sandblasted finishes, particularly the craggy style from Dunhill's earlier days. With this in mind, he envisioned hands-on, distinctly craggy sandblasting as integral to the new brand.
By spring of 1984, Bill had done some preliminary research, and was meeting with a sandblasting machine rep to test various pieces of equipment. The rep showed Bill the first machine, and after spending ten minutes at it with no visible effect on the stummel he was using to test, he knew it would not do. In what I can only imagine playing out as a Goldilocks-esque sequence, Bill moved from machine to machine until settling upon the second largest in its range. R.D. Field described the moment in his essay, The Ashton Pipe Story:
"Hands go into huge rubber gloves, gloved hands are pushed into slots in a giant cabinet, pipe bowl is held directly under the sand jet, foot hits the compressor treadle... and the shank of the bowl is totally blasted away in a split second. 'Now that is a lovely sandblaster' says Bill. Deal done."
In early 1985, Bill was off to Italy, to visit none other than Gigi Radice, who showed him what Bill thought was a "really neat finish": Radice's combination of rustication and sandblasting. While there, Bill also purchased a cappucino maker, which he later brought to his workshop to become an integral part in the development of the Pebbleshell process. Using the machine's steam wand to steam the outsides of oil cured bowls, the treatment would raise the soft grain up and away from the surface, after which Bill would carve it away before sandblasting. He applied for and receieved a British patent for the Pebbleshell process, and each pipe in this series bears that patent number.
And so it was that the Ashton name was the one continuously looked to by veteran and new pipe smoker alike for deep, intensely textured grain patterns like those on Shell Briars of old. Though Bill Taylor is no longer with us, his legacy is carried on through Jimmy Craig, who has taken the Ashton torch and brought it to even greater heights.
That's why, if you're in the market for a classic English shape sporting as deep a sandblast as this, your options are, strictly speaking, fairly limited. You could either wait around for an estate Dunhill Shell of the right era, or spend a healthy sum on an artisanal offering from a classically-oriented artisan like, say, Michael Parks. Both of these are sound options. However, if your budget is a little less substantial, you could spend a small fraction of that and buy a brand new Ashton. The choice is, most definitely, yours.
After all, as Field said:
"Almost anyone can sandblast a pipe; almost no one can produce a magnificent sandblast finish. To produce such an extraordinary article requires the correct touch using the correct machine operating at the correct pressure using the correct particles to sandblast the correct briar which has undergone the correct curing. And what is correct? It differs from maker to maker. You are the final judge as to who are the artists and who is pedestrian in the art of the sandblast."
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Comments
I enjoy reading your aticiles very much,while smoking my pipe.
@William Wilson Well, we're glad we could be of service William.