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Thanks George for bringing this up. I haven't thought about it too much, but now that it's out there, it bothers me. There are a lot of variables, starting at definitions of nebulous things like "good smoker" and ending with fairly concrete things like the specific density of any piece of ...

This is a nice pipe.

that does not inspire much confidence... I didn't really mean it to, unfortunately. Blowfish are difficult in a way that billiards never will be, and visa versa. It's a whole different approach to lines, shaping, and thinking. Instead of seeing an ideal pipe in your head that you force the wood to ...

http://www.smokershaven.com/images/products/detail/0831201301027.JPG Damn that's an ugly pipe. Agreed ;) Blowfish are...tricky. It takes a lot of studying and research til you "see" the blowfish. Then getting your hands to obey you and do all those conex to concave panels and fins and shi...

There's always steel tenons...

A KC club guy has a friend who owns some sort of industrial equipment recovery & restoration business, and amongst the goodies is a massive sandblast setup that's something like 2000 cfm at 300 psi. He said the damn thing recoils like an anti-tank gun when opened up, but is tons of fun. Went th...

I think the never ending quest for perfection is serving you well. You should be VERY happy with those.

Dat Apple.

RadDavis wrote:Dark stain can hide a multitude of sins.

Rad

Seconded.

We'll be there.

The blast doesn't suit me but the proportions and transitions definitely do.

7 inch fiber backed discs are very standard. They kick the most ass.

I'll take a beer.

I'm learning that price and quality do not have a constant relationship as you slide along the price scale. Someone offering their pipes at $200 may be underselling themselves by quite a bit. That $200 pipe exhibits all the qualities of a $300 pipe. But as quality goes up, the price increases as wel...

doing it freehand is one of the great joys of the art.

I use drill press parts for almost everything. The slack sander was made from a drill press, the buffing and shaping motor was from a previous drill press. Those motors are awesome. The perfect speed.

Are you simply referring to the fact that the front and back aren't parallel? Or do you mean the bit is lower than the axis of the shank? I'm referring to the fact that I can't visualize how one would turn tenon at an angle to slip that inlay over, but I can visualize facing and gluing at a wonky a...

I recommend that step 2 is locking yourself in the shop for 3-5 years and not coming out.

I've found these before...but now I'm paranoid. You guys really think they're still alive?

I guess it kind of a where-to-draw-the-line sort of deal. Does the interior have to be absolutely flawless? I would never sell anything that looks like what Todd put up, but I might have to think about something that is just slightly smaller than those. You'd need to figure out what kind of failure ...

You might be surprised to learn that it's not at all difficult to get a beautiful chamber. As long as your drill bit is sharp, presto! You may be onto something there. How do you drill your pipes? When I do them on a drill press, smooth chambers. When I drill freehand....not so much. No matter the ...