Castello Sea Rock

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Rail Man

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I recently picked up a Castello Sea Rock Hawkbill off of Briar Blues (figured I better before the site is lost to the ages) based on the fact I've heard nothing but good things about Castellos. Unfortunately it seems like the airway is not large enough in diameter, the pipe has a pretty firm draw even without any baccy in it. It's even a bit difficult to run a pipe cleaner through it. I can't tell if anything is caked in there but it doesn't look like it, heck, even the mouthpiece airway seems too small.

Has anyone else ever run into this problem with a Sea Rock?
 
I have an Ardor Bambu which I sent back to the factory because of such problems,they redrilled it and now it's one of my best smokers.Contact the distributor and they should take care of it for you at no charge.I don't know
who is the U.S. rep for Castello but you can look it up easily.

Winslow :sunny:
 
The tight draw may be original. How old is the pipe? I have two Castellos that are recent, probably made in the last 3-5yrs, and they smoke as good as the Castello reputation. However, I bought a pristine estate Castello from the 1960s. The vintage pipe was a verrry hard draw! The odd thing was that the stummel was easy and the only constriction was where the button meets the stem. I asked my regular pipe repair/refurb guy (blatant plug for George at Precision Pipe Repair) and he informed me that Castello had this problem for some years in the 60s. So....
 
I have no idea how old it is and it seems pretty tough to date definitively, but here's the best info I can give.

The logo on the stem is the "diamond" instead of the white bar, and stamped on the shank is the shape, 84, KKKK in an oval, Castello Sea Rock Briar, Made in Cantu Italy, and Carlo Scotti in an oval. Also on the stem engraved is Hand Made Castello.

I may have to send it to Precision and see if George can get it fixed up.
 
I don't know how to date a Castello either. I believe it is more difficult and less accurate than some brands (e.g. Dunhill). However, if it needs the airway opened, regardless of age, than PPR and several other repairmen can sort it out. George at PPR said it was a tricky job, because of the button design, but do-able. I don't have mine back yet....
 
I have a Castello Sea Rock Canadian - with identical markings. No problem with the draw. It must be your particular pipe. I had a Butz with a hard draw. I found that it was a bit of 'plastic' in the stem that impeded the flow. I nuked it out with a pipe tool. No problem now.
 
I had an old Sea Rock that had a very tight draw due to the mouthpiece. It was a curvy sorta canadian dealie. The mouthpiece was some kind of faux amber. Real tight.
 
Rail Man,

I have three Castello Sea Rocks, and they had the same issue you described (tough draws). I sent two of them to Steve O'Neill (who learned pipe restoration from the late Jim Benjamin) who is based in Utah He opened the draws and they now smoke great. I sent the other to Adam Davidson, who did a fabolous job as well. They basically opened the stem airway and it makes a big difference -- I agree with Rick Newcombe's observation that an unobstructed airway/draw is critical to pleasurable pipe smoking, irrespective of brand.

Hope this helps.
 
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