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Hey guys, I just got my sandblasting setup upto par thank to all the wisdom and advise from you guys. However, I am baffled at how to sandblast those nice rings you see in sandblasted pipes.

I blasted a pipe a few months back and it has beautiful deep sandblasted rings. My most recent pipe started getting the rings and then they seemed to mellow out.

What causes the briar to take on the ring sandblast look? I'm wondering if its a matter of blasting close to the pipe and at an angle thats just off parallel to the bowl sides.

So what methods do you guys use?

Hi Chris,

Ring blasts depend on the pipes grain orientation and the wood itself.

A good striaight grain will give you a ring grain blast. How deep and detailed that blast is depends on the wood. Every block will blast differently. some are rock hard, and some are very soft. Softer wood tends to bring out a more detailed blast.

If you use a pencil blaster like Bruce Weaver oo J.T. Cooke, it's a whole different process that I have no experience with.

Rad

Thanks a ton. I just couldn't figure out if it was just technique or the grain.

FWIW you can see ring grain on a well finished pipe. So you can judge the thing before you blast it... I find the rings show up on freehands when I sand around 400... before that, I can't see them. Sort of a pillowy ripple running perpendicular to the flame grain.