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  1. #27
    Join Date
    18th October 09
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    I'm not one of those guys who counts the number of teeth in the combing, that's beyond my knowledge.

    I'm usually just looking at the obvious things, for example R G Lawrie did mounts in a unique (AFAIK) way.

    A pipe maker/restorer told me these are done on a lathe: a sheet of German Silver/Cupro-Nickel/Nickel Silver is spun, and shaped with some sort of tool the turner holds in his hand.

    The "bead" is integral to the mount, the same sheet of metal turned over itself.

    People talk of the Lawrie "tapered mounts" and indeed they're usually tapered on later Lawries but keep in mind that each mount is spun by hand and each mount on the same set might have a slightly different taper than the rest.

    Especially on early Lawries the sides of the mounts can be completely parallel, or nearly parallel.

    Here's a set of Lawrie stocks where you can clearly see the typical Lawrie German Silver spun mounts, and see the varying degrees of taper.



    On early Lawries these spun German Silver mounts sometimes are seen with this thistle pattern. A piper who is also a silversmith told me these aren't engraved, but rather the pattern is pressed into the sheet metal with a roller. Lawrie offered these in the early 20th century as a much cheaper alternative to engraved Sterling Silver mounts. (Modern pipers usually mistake these for engraved Sterling Silver mounts.)



    Now about Robertson. As they say "Roberstons: Lots of wood. Lots of ivory. Lots of tone."

    He used more ivory than any other maker before or since. The mounts are huge.

    There are other Robertson traits, for one he often used Casein for mounts. Made of a milk protein, Casein unfortunately doesn't age well, and eventually degrades and literally falls apart. A pipe maker/restorer told me there's nothing that can be done other than slap some coating (lacquer? resin?) over it to seal it.

    Another quirky mount style Robertson did was huge black plastic mounts (bakelite?).

    And it wasn't just the mounts, the wood on Robertsons is chunkier than most makers.

    On nearly all bagpipes the Bass top is larger than the Tenor tops, but Robertson would make the Tenor tops the larger Bass size, so that all three drone tops are the same, or nearly the same. (I've seen Robertsons which have had silver mounts added, the silver mounts having the standard thing of the Tenor tops being smaller than the Bass top, the wood on the Tenor tops crudely sticking out. If they had any sense the silversmith would make three Bass tops.)

    Here's a Robertson Casein-mounted pipe so you can see how these various quirks come together to create a unique look.

    Note the outsized Tenor tops and the massive mounts.

    Last edited by OC Richard; 30th August 22 at 04:02 AM.
    Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte

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