Experimental blast

[smokepiper]

I got a new blast cabinette and i mixed aluminum oxide and glass and this is the result still needs some stem work. Might be a bit to long stem too. ADVICE PLEASE

[Nick]

The blast looks fine. It depends on what you're going for. Most American pipesters prefer a really rough craggy and knarly blast. Somthing that will draw blood if you rub it across your cheek. But alot of Europeans prefer a shallower more detailed blast. You definately seem to have that here. If it were me, I'd be going for the OKF (Old Knarly Fucker) look. But you know your market better than me.

The stem looks great to me. Overall it looks very balanced. Maybe a hair long, but not so much as it detracts from the pipes desirability. I like it!

[smokepiper]

The kraggy blasts how do they succeed making them? is there a ring rustication and then blast or how is it doned?

[ArtGuy]

Keep in mind that I have sandblasted but 4 pipes so I am still very much experimenting myself. That being said, from what I have been told it is a combination of air pressure, distance the gun is from the pipe and the angle you are shooting from. I do not make what I would call craggy blasts but have found that higher pressures (95 psi) or so works best and then shooting subsequent passes at progressively lower pressure allows for more detail. I am not sure what you are blasting at. You may be doing the same thing for all I know. I have been thinking of changing to a glass bead / AO mix myself. From the looks of it you have gotten some good detail with it.

[smokepiper]

I blasted a poker today and the details came out really good but the kraggy parts isn´t the easiest thing to do. I think the best way is to make a quick blast first so the ringgrain appears then fill the ringgrain with a dental drill bit then blast again. That is what i think and i am trying this next time i blast.

[GbpBulgaria]

Hi
I thing the second one is much better. I prefer deep blast myself. In my hands is one NUMBUS pipe blasted very deep but from one side from the other one is not so deep. In the deep blasted side there is beautiful ring grain – on the other side no. I personally prefer deep blasting the opposite looks woolly.
I like first shape more ..

Best
George

[Nick]

As I understand it, and I've not blasted anything, so this is all from talking to folks, to get a good craggy blast its best to blast the pipe several times with different media and pressure each time. Starting with an aggresive media and higher pressure, and then moving to less aggressive and lower pressure to bring out the details.

One other tip I read was that steaming the stummels right before blasting allows more detail to be brought out. Bill Taylor uses and expresso machine to steam his pipes before blasting them.

[smokepiper]

Interesting, guess i have to try that one... Thanks!

[ArtGuy]

Steaming would raise the grain a little, though on briar I am not certain how much. I suppose it might do enough to allow more distinction between hard and soft grain after blasting. :dunno:

[sethile]

Oh boy, perfect timing for another blasting thread!

Ronny, nice job on these, especially for your first attempts. I like them both. I like a variaty of blasts. The old craggy Dunhils are great, but I also like the finer more even blasts with more detail and in either I always like seeing lots of ring grain. I think my facvorites are JT Cook's, but seen some beauts from Rad and few others from here too.

I finally found a blaster on campus, and it's less than 50 yards from my shop! It's a nice free standing Cyclone unit with a beefy compressor and loaded with what appears to be very fine white AO media (might be the stuff they use for facials or something?). This is in the metal smithing shop where they make jewlrey, and the proff says I can use it at will

I blasted my first the other day. Great fun, and it turned out ok, but not great. I got carried away on one area thinking I could encourage a little more figure there. Nope, just distroyed my shape. This is a partial blast, and my masking did not work out as well as I had hoped. Need to perfect that. Also need to work out the staining and buffing afterwards. I wanted it dark and went with black leather dye. I wanted some highlights on the high spots, but lost almost all the dye on them, even with very light buffing. I just stained it again and it's drying under some heat. Any tips?

John, what are you using for dye, and how are you applying, buffing, etc.? I love the way your blasts are looking so far, and was shooting for something sort of like that on this one.

[smokepiper]

I use a red alcohol stain, but i brush the wood first to whipe the dust out of the grain and heat it with hot airgun. When i stained the red i waite till it dryed a bit brush again to work the stain into the grain. Heat the wood again and use either black oil dye or leatherstain, several rounds and brushing. Now the brush also makes the stain clear black and not the grayfaded black. For gaining a hard surface and durability for the stain i use shellack mixed with 10 times alcohol, the shellack must not dry just get a bit sticky when i brush tha pipe quite hard for getting the seal into the grain, Bo Nordh used a similar technique but had other than shellack he used zarphon. The brushing makes a clear and detailed grian ands when the pipe is brushed for 10-15 min i leave it to rest for an hour. Then i polish with carnauba and quite hard if i want the red undertone to break through and gentley if long time use is going to do the same effekt. The red understain is bordeaux or cyklamen depending on the effekt i need.

[sethile]

Thanks Ronny, that description helps a lot... And it certainly looks great on these two! I found the heat helped me too, but I don't think I used it enough, especially before staining. I just let it sit under the heat afterward. I think the shellac would have helped. I thought about it, but didn't have any handy. I will next time...

I found staining the blast much more of a challange in terms of getting it to take well, and for some reason I expected the opposite :dunno: