Over the years I have been developing a process for rusticating pipes. I have used it on old estates that I have been given or purchased where the finish did not work for me or it had too many fills or pits. The tools I use are pictured below. The one on the left is a variation of a tool that I made from plans on Tyler Lane’s Pipe making site. It is made of a piece of black 1 inch pipe. I packed it with galvanized nails and then a cap is put on the end of it. The cap is packed with steel wool to keep the nails from shifting. I plan to make another variation on this and use a T union that will serve as a handle. The current cap is hard on the palm of the hand as I twist it into the surface of the pipe. I also want to weld the nails in place to avoid any shifting of them as I use the tool. The second tool is a florist’s frog – it has a lead base with sharp spikes (watch your hands and fingers on this one) that is used in floral arrangements. I got this at an antique shop. I want to create a wooden handle for this one to give me a bit more distance from the surface of the briar when I am working it over the wood.

I start rusticating the briar with the large tool on the left and then finish with the smaller one on the right should I want to achieve a bit different pattern or rustication. Either individually or together they provide an interesting rustication. The larger tool does the gross work and the smaller one adds finesse to the rustication.

For the sake of showing the process I have chosen the following old timer – a Dr. Plumb carved apple that had a finish that I did not like. It had a carved finish of lines around the bowl and then horizontally on the shank. The original pipe is pictured below in the first two pictures to give an idea of the original state of the pipe. I also include pictures of a Canadian that is riddled with fills. It smoked great but just looked awful in my opinion. I wanted to show pictures of both a previously carved finish and one with fills to show what I see as an improvement in both of these pipes after rustication. Each one has a slightly different rustication pattern to it as I was trying to achieve something different in each case. The pictures that follow will give you an idea of how the process works from start to finish. I conclude the essay with two added pipes that I rusticated to give a broad sampling of the finished look of my rustication method.

To begin the process I want to work with clean pipes that do not have any finish on them other than the stain. I put the bowls in an alcohol bath for an hour to remove all the waxes, finishes and grime that is on the outside of the bowl. I also ream and clean the pipe as I will handle it pretty roughly as I rusticate it. I don’t want added grime on my work table and hands so for me a clean pipe is what I like to work with. On the Canadian I removed the band and set it aside so that it would not be damaged in the rustication process.

For the purpose of this essay I will begin with the Dr. Plumb apple. I worked the rustication tool into the wood, twisting it back and forth until it had the rough look to it as can be seen below in the picture on the left. Once that was done I gave it a coat of black aniline stain. I find that the stain facilitates seeing any part of the wood that still needed to be worked or showed a pattern that was to uniform. I reworked the rustication with the larger tool to get it a bit more rough and random looking. Once I had the rustication the way I wanted it I stained the pipe a second time using a medium brown stain. This was to be the finish coat. I stained it, flamed it to set the stain, restained and set it a second time. The result was the matte finish pictured below on the right. In the light it showed some depth and variation in colour coming through from the earlier black stain that I put on after the first rustication. The third picture from taken from above shows the finished rustication before I buffed the stem and gave the entire pipe a light buff with white diamond.

The next step is to take the pipe to my buffer. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and then white diamond. I buffed the bowl with white diamond to knock off some of the rough edges and to soften the edges of the rustication a bit and polish the smooth areas to highlight them. From pictures below the effect of the buff can be seen. It helps to differentiate the smooth areas from the rusticated ones and give a nice contrast to the finished look. The smooth areas have been polished and have a sheen. The rough areas have a softer glow that highlights the depth of the rustication and the pebbled finish of the pipe. The tactile surface of the “new” pipe is pleasant to the hand. It also has a better look than the pipe that existed before with the carved finish.

I have included the remaining pictures to show several other pipes that I have rusticated. These will give you an idea of the variety of finishes that can be achieved with the tools. It also shows a unique texture finish that I have developed that I like and repeat. The key here is to work the process repeatedly to develop your own distinctive look and feel. Rustication is an individual process as can be seen by the wide variety in rusticated pipes seen on the market. I continue to develop my method and try different patterns and also try to repeat the ones I like.

The first set of pictures show the finished Canadian that was pictured above before rustication. I used only the larger tool on this pipe. When I had finished rusticating it to my satisfaction I used a brass whitewall brush to smooth out the rustication. I took it to the buffer and used white diamond to soften and flatten out the roughness. I wanted to have a different look with this pipe which explains the process variations. I stained it with a medium brown aniline stain and was aiming for the look of old leather. The flaws and fills on this old Canadian are now hidden and a pipe that is much more pleasing to the eye is the result.

The second pipe is a John Bessai bent apple. I cannot find the pictures of the pipe before rustication but I remember it well. It had many fills and flaws in the wood and was a light tan colour. The pink putty fills stood out against this nice tan backdrop. They made me always bypass this pipe in my rotation. It smoked well but it was just ugly. I would pick it up and then put it down and take another one in hand. I was going to sell it but thought I would rusticate the bowl and see what it would look like. Again I was going for a leathery look. I used only the larger tool on this one as well. Once I finished the rustication I again used the brass whitewall brush to soften the rustication and buffed it with white diamond. The final rustication before staining looked much as it does in the finished pipe. The colour of the pipe is achieved by a combination of an oxblood undercoat stain and then a buff followed by a medium brown topcoat. I left the shank smooth with the stampings still visible. To me the much improved look draws me to it and the tactile nature of the pipe in hand is a bonus. As it heats up the feel is very pleasant.    

The final pipe pictured below is one I carved. It was a kit I picked up from eBay. It was a small block and stem stamped Caveman pipes. I carved the shape I saw in the block. As I did, the flaws and sand pits became visible. It became clear that once more rustication was the solution yet again. I used the larger tool followed by the brass whitewall brush to soften the rustication and give the pipe my favourite old leather look. The first two pictures below show the unstained pipe after rustication. Note that I wrapped the shank with electrical tape at the stem/shank junction to protect the stem and to give a band of smooth briar. The third two pictures show the pipe after the undercoat of black stain. The final colour (seen in the last two pictures) was achieved by a combination of a black undercoat of aniline stain and a top coat of medium brown. I buffed between coats of stain. All of the above pipes were then polished with Halcyon wax and buffed with a flannel buff.

The above process is demonstrated in the four pipes pictured. It is very simple. I stained each of the pipes before I rusticated them so that I could easily see where I was working. I used the larger rustication tool on all of the pipes. For the first one I used the second tool to change the rustication and then applied stain. In the last three I used a brass whitewall brush to soften the rustication and give it a leathery texture. Once I got the desire rustication I stained the pipe again for the finished colouring. The first was merely buffed with a soft touch on a white diamond buff. The remaining three were polished by hand with Halcyon wax and then buffed with a flannel buff to give it a polished look.

Give the process a try and see what you can come up with. It is a creative outlet and a means of exercising some creativity. Let us know what the finished product looks like.