Materials
Sandblasting: Circles and Shanks
On deeply sandblasted pipes, it's often noted that the bowl doesn't come out perfectly round and that the shank ends up thinner than the mouthpiece. Both come from the nature of the process and depend on decisions the maker makes ahead of time.
Circles and shanks in sandblasting covers two dimensional effects commonly seen on deeply blasted briar pipes together: the bowl not reading as a perfect circle from above, and the shank ending up thinner than the mouthpiece it joins. Neither comes from careless finishing; both arise from the abrasive removing material from the wood. The workshop side of the subject is laid out comprehensively in an article published in April 2008 under the byline of maker Trever Talbert.
The Abrasive Doesn't Only Take From the Surface
Sandblasting's operating principle is that briar's soft early wood wears faster than its hard late wood. A light application removes only the top layer; the stummel largely holds the line it came off the lathe and sandpaper with. As pressure and duration increase, the abrasive digs deeply into the soft zones, leaving behind a skeleton formed by the hard zones. Every layer removed is also a share subtracted from the dimensions: the outside diameter of a deeply sandblasted bowl drops below its pre-blast measurement. That's why a maker aiming for deep texture leaves the stummel somewhat oversized to begin with, reaching the finished dimension only after blasting. Uncontrolled pressure causing shape distortion in briar is a shared warning across technical accounts.
Where the Shank Meets the Mouthpiece
The Rest of This Entry Is in the App
The full ISPE opens with your IPC account.
Related Entries
Last updated:
Source: Pipedia, adapted under the CC BY-SA licence.