Rinaldo Sahara (YYY) (3) (M) Partially Sandblasted Dublin with Laburnum Sapwood (Estate)

As with so many of today’s premier Italian workshop makes, the story of Rinaldo begins at Mastro de Paja. The latter was a workshop founded by Giancarlo Guidi (later of Ser Jacopo) and Giannino Spadoni (later of Fiamma di Re), which the brothers Elio and Guido Rinaldo worked for as teenagers in the 1970s. At the end of the 1980s, the two departed Mastro de Paja to found their own make under their surname. Thus, Rinaldo was born.

The Sahara is Rinaldo’s flagship sandblast line, one that lives up to its namesake by way of ring grain finishes that ripple across briar like wind tracks left in a desert dune. In this instance, the Sahara has been partially applied to a broad bent Dublin, with its rim left smooth and more or less natural, so as not to waste the bird’s-eye patterns also inherent to the block it was carved from. Interestingly, this particular pipe also features an accent material that I haven’t seen on a Rinaldo in a long time, but which was a signature of sorts years ago. That material is laburnum wood, and more specifically the golden sapwood that comes from the laburnum tree. In Italian, laburnum is known as maggiociondolo, hence the “M” included in this pipe’s nomenclature.

The condition is excellent. Lightly and gently smoked.

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.86mm

Bowl Depth: 1.68″ / 42.67mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g