pipemakersforum.com

Here's my latest work. I'd love to hear your honest thoughts and opinions.

Pipe #9:
This one was supposed to be a chubby billiard nosewarmer, but a large pit developed about 2/3 of the way up the bowl that went all the way through to the chamber. I decided I still had enough briar to shape a Rhodesian or bulldog out of it. The airway is a few mm off center and the chamber was drilled at 1" for the original intended shape. A bit wide for a Rhodesian or bulldog I think. I also found out that a Rhodesian or bulldog shape without a lathe is extremely difficult. The shape looks more like an apple with the Rhodesian ring so I affectionately dubbed it the "Rhode-apple" shape. I think it wasn't a total disaster and thought, with the wide chamber, it might be good for Va/Per's so I gifted it to a forum member who had sent me a generous amount of tobacco.




Pipe #10:





Pipe #11:

I love 11 so much

9 is good, 10 is my type of my pipe and 11 is absolutely stunning! 11 is the type of pipe that will draw my attention inbetween a 100 pipes.

Well done!

Very nice work. Number 11 is sweet.

Hey, some work to critique!!!

First the Rhode-apple. Personally, this is my favorite of the bunch. I don't have any real comments on teh pipe itself, but more on your own comments. Rhodesians are typically of robust proportions, and having a nice substantial bowl on a good thick shank like that makes it all work as a unit. Personally, I've seen both the flat angled bowl top, and the more rounded bowl top on rhodesians, and I must say I prefer the rounder tops like yours. To me, this is a well executed pipe with good form and proportion. The button may need a minor amount of work, but it's tough to tell from only one photo.

#10 / Lovat: This one caught my eye at first. A lovat is a very tough shape to do right because of that loooong shank. If it's at all off angle, or has any variance in thickness, it goes from being a nice pipe to a unsettling pipe in fairly short order. I don't see either of those common problems evident here. Personally, I would have made the shank a hair thicker, or the bowl a hair lighter. The bowl seems a little large for the shank size. The saddle area on the stem seems like it could use some slimming as well - though that is tough to say for certain from these photos. It almost looks like a lazy transition, and should be more abrupt and less rounded - keep the face vertical, then give it a quarter round transition right at the flat of the stem. This is a tough thing to do by hand, but don't get me wrong - I think only another pipe maker might notice this on your pipe. Overall, a good execution.

#11 / freehand: This shape of pipe isn't my cup of tea, but I'll keep my comments objective. The stem starts off at the shank pretty well. I like that it's more of an extension of the shank there adding balance and proportion. If the stem was thin all the way up to the wood, it would be completely out of balance. As it is, the stem may still be a little long, but not overly so. Speaking of the stem, I think you've got too much bend in it. Personally, I wouldn't have bent it that far. Most pipes actually work best with slightly less than a perfectly perpendicular bend in relation to the bowl - especially longer pipes that are designed to be held rather than clenched. The stem/shank transition area could use a little improvement. It's not easy to tell if that line is due to an actual gap, or if it's that the stem isn't the same size as the shank. Overall it looks good. The shank/bowl transition looks good on this, and all the pipes you posted.

Nice work!

Thanks for the input fellas. Thanks especially to Kurt. Very constructive criticism all of which confirms my own thoughts on these pipes and a couple things I didn't pick up on but agree with. As for the button work, any advice on how to keep crisp lines while doing final sanding and buffing? I'm having the same trouble with my saddles. I'd like to keep a nice crisp edge on my saddles but am not sure how to avoid losing it during buffing. The saddle stem is definitely tough to get just right by hand. I believe this one is my third attempt at a saddle stem and hope that I can improve with more practice.

Thanks again,
Wayne Teipen

Just bumping this one to see if anyone has any advice regarding my last post.

Thanks.

Practice, practice, practice. Saddles, when done right, are some of the best looking stems in my opinion. If you mess them up, though, they look like crap. I think the best advice for saddles is to use the old chainsaw file. Make a relatively perpendicular transition and file the transition area between the flat and the perpendicular area with the chainsaw file. This will give a crisp transition that looks great. Also try not to round over the top as well. You want abrupt angle changes, not smooth transitions.

Reading that over, I don't think it's quite as clear as I intended. I'll try to draw some pics later on.

In order to keep crisp edges on your stem when buffing, you need to keep your edges at a tangent to the wheel. Never allow a crisp edge to "gouge" into the wheel. It's hard to explain... say you're trying to buff the flat on a saddle and want to keep that crisp saddle edge: imagine trying to buff the stem from the middle of the flat to the edge that is pointing down, so apply pressure to the middle of the flat against the wheel and adjust your angle slightly to buff to the edge, but not so much as to gouge. Then flip the stem sideways in your hand to buff from the middle to the other edge, again pointing down. You want to wheel to "fall off" the edge, never gouge or introduce an edge into the wheel. When it comes time to buff that little edge to the flats, hold the stem parallel with the wheel and lightly run the full length of the edge along the center of the wheel. That way, the edge never has a chance to "catch" and you are buffing that flat edge flat. I hope this made some sense.