Volcano, Etude 33, 3rd with BP bits

[sethile]

Hello folks, I'm taking some vacation time and have had the luxury of spending most of it making pipes and setting up the shop. Great fun, but it's mostly because I'm too broke to go on a real vacation due to spending all my money on tooling and materials Here's the latest:





Having a great time with the new bits. Still getting the feel of using the shape first method, but it's coming. The BP bits themselves are a real joy to use! The more I play with volcanos the more I respect the masters and there work with this shape! This turned out better than I thought it might, but has two flaws that turned up late--I could not work around them, and just didn't have the heart to blast it.

[James Sunderland]

great shape I never would of thought of a rectangular bottom but it works really well with the stem. What make theese bits so much easier to use after shaping ? I totally belive you guys and can't wait to get my own but i have a hard time seeing what the difference is. I get the feeling this is just the rookie side of me.

[sethile]

Thanks James! Yes, the bottom is a little too rectangular. I think it would have been better off more oval at the base. The width of the block was somewhat limiting.

These bits don't tend grab and pull the material into the cut like Silver and Deming (S&D) bits do. And they are much smoother cutting and much more self centering than a modified spade bit is. S&D bit flutes are designed to eject chips, which is all well and good if the work is clamped, and the bit is controlled, but it's very tough not to loose control when freehand drilling where you're holding the stummel and pushing it into the spinning bit. The S&D bits tend to pull the work into the bit, as well as catch the stummel and twist it right out your hands.

The spoon type bits don't pull or catch. They seem to cut the wood in beautiful thin shavings, more like a plane or a sharp scraper would do. Much more control of the operation, and a much cleaner chamber as a result.

[JSPipes]

That's a really sharp pipe. Nicely done. I do have one comment. This is something told to me by a very high grade dealer at a show. It seems to apply to this pipe as much as it did to the one he looked at.

If you're gonna make a panel, make a panel. If not, don't even hint at it.

In other words, don't hint at corners with curves as you did here. Make sharp edges and make it a panel. Otherwise it looks like you weren't quite sure where you wanted to go with it.

I have one other comment. The hump under the shank doesn't follow the line of the bowl above the shank. It's a much cleaner line when you track that all the way through the shank and under the bowl.

That said, your finishing looks great and I really like your stem inlay. It fits the shape and color of the wood very nicely.

I have a long way to go myself and feedback like this is helpful. Thanks for posting and putting yourself out like this. I hope it helped.

Joel

[sethile]

Thanks Joel, That is great input! Interesting comments in that I really struggled with how to handle the shank. At first I'd thought about sharper edges with definite panels. My concern was it would be too much contrast between the shank and bowl. For a while I had flat sides with a more round top and bottom (no hint of corners) and at that point it flowed into the bowl more as you describe too. I think that was better, but still not great. I had also considered ovaling the entire shank, but feared loosing too much of the straight grain on the shank, which I liked.

So, as you can see, you're right, I had no idea what I was going for, and I achieved that very impression I have all these great volcanos banging around in my head from Brad, Todd, and Jeff's work, as well as some others. Makes it pretty darn intimidating to tackle one!

Yes, I find the input here has always been extremely helpful. Thanks for your help!