S1 Sandblast Nauta
Another of Giancarlo's favorite. The Nauta is an adaptation
of the Delecta, without a silver collar on the stem's tenon,
and a slightly wider ridge on the shank's silver cap.
All Nauta's have long briar covered stems, which allow a pipe
cleaner to pass to the bowl without delay!
Sandblasted pipes are the Rodney Dangerfield of the pipe world.
They get no respect!
It's a shame since they offer pipe smokers so much,
and usually at a most reasonable price.
Over the years I've spoken with many smokers who believe or
have been told that pipes are sandblasted in to hide flaws in
the briar.
A small (notice the emphasis on small) portion
of that statement is true, the rest is balderdash.
When a pipe is selected for sandblasting it almost always
has some surface speckling, often called, "black spots".
These
spots should not be confused with flaws or defects which
could adversely the function of a pipe. Sandblasting will literally
blow away the soft wood, and usually the black spots, leaving
the hardest parts of the wood, and a breathtaking three dimensional
representation of the grain.
This is grain you not only see, but feel as well.
If the sandblasting unit had encountered a true flaw, which are
much bigger than black spots, it would have blown through the
flaw, and possibly right through the bowl itself.
(We've seen it happen).
No good pipe maker tries to hide flaws by sandblasting.
It's too unpredictable, it takes too much time, and since time
is
money it costs to much.
This is especially true since there is a much better way,
which we will cover elsewhere in this site.
(Let's see if that keeps you reading ; )
Photo ref: 4023
