The Bad:
1. Clipped the top line at the shank end like I did on the other two
2. Same flat spot on the back of the bowl as the other two, this one being worst of the three. In retrospect I could have cut the transition in quite a bit harder and it would have looked better (you dudes like Kurt Balleby? Cool, me too)
3. Lost the line of the shank, particularly on the right side where it moves convex
4. Stem lines have some waviness
5. Profile of stem blade needs refinement, but I think this one was better than the billiard (maybe?)
Line-holding (and maybe some line identification) is indeed your biggest weakness at this point.
The following is part of an interview that Scottie P. did for P&T magazine a couple years ago that explains how she learned to be a line-killer:
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Only a few weeks before this conversation, Scottie had entered the Kansas City Pipe Club's annual North American Pipe Carving Contest, and handily placed in the winning 7-day set. Not easy to do, especially since it was one of the contest's ruthlessly strict "classic years" where fractions of a millimeter and attention to the smallest detail can make the difference between being selected for the set or not. That she had done it with an Author, a massive, chunky, flowing shape that was the polar opposite of the smallish, double-take-inducingly-slender geometric design that was her specialty, only added to the intrigue.
"Tell me about giving the recent Kansas City carving contest a go. Are you a competitive person by nature, or did you just feel it was something that might be educational or otherwise interesting?"
Again no hesitation. "I'm extremely competitive. My mom says I was born that way. Doesn't matter what it is, I try to be the best. Else why bother?" Then she softens. "Sorry. I didn't mean to imply I like glory or attention. I compete for myself. There's no other way to know how good or bad you really are at something, right? Your family and friends will always blow sunshine at you, and so will your own ego if you let it... So going head-to-head with other people is the only way to really know."
"I agree," I said. "Did the pressure of facing that truth affect how you made your entry? Such as easing into it in an experimental way that involved lots of practice attempts, maybe, or the opposite of that---deliberately waiting until the last minute because working without a safety net brings out something special in you?"
"Oh, gosh. Nothing like that. One day maybe I'll have that much confidence, but certainly not now. I definitely took the first path. In fact, the KC contest people announce the upcoming shape almost a year in advance, so I took full advantage of the time to study the Author shape family and make a few. The one I entered was my fourth or fifth, I think."
"Did you do anything differently once you knew you were holding your 'entry specimen'? When you realized that the perfect concave curve you had been chasing---or whatever it was---and a sufficiently flawless block of briar had finally converged?"
That smile again. "Nothing different in terms of tools, techniques, or finishes, but I did do something that Bo Nordh was famous for, which was to slow things down at that point and do the final shaping in tiny steps. That every time I thought it was done, no matter how certain I was, I forced myself to put the pipe on a shelf out of sight for the rest of the day. Then, the next morning I'd pick it up again and examine everything with a fresh eye. It was amazing. Bo was right. Easily one of the most important things I've learned about pipe making so far: when you're tired and want to be finished with a particular one, your brain lies to you. It edits and distorts things so you'll be satisfied. When perfection is your goal, though, you have to ignore that editing and distortion until everything truly is spot-on."
"How do you know when you really are finished, though? When 'truly spot-on' is reached?" I asked.
"When there are no tape dots for three days." She said.
"Please explain."
"That's how I mark the high spots. Tiny tabs of green masking tape. When I saw a high area, I'd sticker it. After all the high areas were marked I'd level them with sandpaper or a file until they were about ninety percent gone. Then put the pipe away. The next day I'd do it all again, and the next, until no high spots remained. For the contest pipe I made extra sure by not moving on to finishing until there were no tape dots for three fresh-eyed days in a row."
"Judging by the contest results, I'd say you got 'em all." I said. She smiled.
"Come to think of it, strictly speaking, 'removing all the high spots' applies to the entire process of shaping a pipe starting with the entire briar burl coming out of the ground, doesn't it? Since carving is material removal by definition---unlike creating an object with clay where material can be added---you must train yourself to see shaping things in a subtractive way. Recognize how to smooth and balance the flow of curves and shapes and still have everything line up, by only by taking away from them."
"Exactly," she said. "The tool sequence is bandsaw, lathe, high speed spinning disks, files, sandpaper, and buffer. Plus a few drills along the way, and maybe a chisel or two depending on the shape."
"What sort of dimensional changes are we talking about during that final 'Bo Nordh' fine-tuning process you described?"
"Gosh. I'm not even sure how that could be measured. No more than a few thousandths of an inch, I imagine. But seeing things that small isn't hard with practice. Just dim your shop lights and shine a lamp on a section of smooth, white wall. Holding a dark pipe in front of a bright background like that lets you see its profile like nothing else. Then, when the profile finally looks right from every angle, hold the pipe under a bright light and move it around to catch any low-angle shadows on the wood that shouldn't be there, and to create reflections on the stem. Those shadows and reflections expose
everything."UFOs must be real. There's no other explanation for cats.
