FACTORY TOUR CONTINUED
Now that you've become an expert on briar harvesting and
preparing,
let's go on and see how
the blocks are delivered to Savinelli for processing.
We will begin with a couple of views of our factory from just outside the main doors.
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In 1948 Achille Savinelli opened his pipe manufacturing factory in
Varese Italy. |
Next we will start with the arrival of purchased blocks of briar.
As we learned earlier, the briar blocks are boiled to rid them of resins and
impurities.
You also know that Savinelli buys only the top grades of briar which are delivered in
sacks to our factory.
What you don't know is, that even though these blocks have been drying for some
time, they will require another
two to three (2-3) years of additional drying.....Yes we said 2 to 3 YEARS!
Why does it take so long for the blocks to dry?
The answer is simple. We -AIR DRY- every one of the blocks we purchase. Oh, we
could speed up the process by
using artificial means such as forced heat drying, but we have found that by drying the
blocks naturally we wind
up with a better smoking pipe. In fact, you'll find that we are one of the few pipe
manufacturers who still use
time tested Olde Worlde techniques. Even our stains are still derived
naturally
from vegetable dyes.
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Blocks delivered in sacks. |
Each block sorted by size. |
Blocks stored to air dry. |
In the first photo above you see the hundreds of blocks as they are delivered
in sacks from the briar harvesters.
In the center photo, you see workers sorting out each block by size. Each basket will
contain just the right size for producing one shape or another. Bent shapes require one
size of block, where a straight shape might require another size etc.
The photo at far right is that of an area in one of our outdoor storage buildings where
the blocks are put into racks
to air dry for 24 to 36 months. Each rack is tagged with the date and shape designation of
the blocks. During the
drying process, as many as 30% of the blocks may develop cracks of sufficient size to
render them useless.
Now let's imagine that 2 to 3 years have gone by and we are
ready to work with
the 70% of the blocks that survived the air drying process, but before
we go inside the factory,
you should also know that out of this 70% group
as much as 30% will still be found not good enough
to become a Savinelli pipe.
MAIN
TO THE
FACTORY
