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Dunhill Factory: Difference between revisions
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The manufacture of most of today’s products - cars, sweets, compact disc players - is mostly an exercise in creating standard products with minimal wastage. Making a Dunhill pipe is a very different matter. For example, one sack of briar wood containing 100 blocks will probably only contain one or two blocks good enough to become an Alfred Dunhill pipe. To make such raw material costs viable, the remaining blocks are then used for other pipes, hence the logic of pipe makers owning a range of less expensive pipe brands in addition to their premium line. | The manufacture of most of today’s products - cars, sweets, compact disc players - is mostly an exercise in creating standard products with minimal wastage. Making a Dunhill pipe is a very different matter. For example, one sack of briar wood containing 100 blocks will probably only contain one or two blocks good enough to become an Alfred Dunhill pipe. To make such raw material costs viable, the remaining blocks are then used for other pipes, hence the logic of pipe makers owning a range of less expensive pipe brands in addition to their premium line. | ||
The unpredictability factor continues throughout the manufacturing process, according to Philpott. ‘There aren’t many production operations where you don’t actually know what you are going to get. We’ll start a bowl and mouthpiece at the beginning of the process, it will be graded according to its grain, and we'll know what colour finish we want to put on it to enhance its grain. But as it goes through the polishing process, the grain pattern can change. So you might set out to produce a pipe with a natural brown, bruyère finish, but you find by the end of the process that the grain has improved so you can put a different finish on it.</q> The Worldwide Pipe Smoker's Magazine, by Tim Rich. Vol. 2, 2nd Semester 1993. Published by Magazine Partners, The Netherlands. Courtesy Bruno de Figueiredo.</blockquote> | The unpredictability factor continues throughout the manufacturing process, according to Philpott. ‘There aren’t many production operations where you don’t actually know what you are going to get. We’ll start a bowl and mouthpiece at the beginning of the process, it will be graded according to its grain, and we'll know what colour finish we want to put on it to enhance its grain. But as it goes through the polishing process, the grain pattern can change. So you might set out to produce a pipe with a natural brown, bruyère finish, but you find by the end of the process that the grain has improved so you can put a different finish on it.</q> The Worldwide Pipe Smoker's Magazine, by Tim Rich. Vol. 2, 2nd Semester 1993. Published by Magazine Partners, The Netherlands. P.37-43. Courtesy Bruno de Figueiredo.</blockquote> | ||
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*'''Note:''' All the stems were made by hand until 1976. They have since been machine made due to labor costs. | *'''Note:''' All the stems were made by hand until 1976. They have since been machine made due to labor costs. | ||