I received my little guy from Beat just the other day. I've kicked the tires taken him for a drive and am very pleased. Below is the critique I sent:
Beat Tadpole
The pipe I received from Beat was very well represented from his pictures. My initial impression of the shape is that of a whale or tadpole. As the pipe is quite small, I lean toward the tadpole moniker. Beat has told me that this is his third pipe, and as such, an excellent point at which to receive some hands on constructive criticism.
The pipe is quite beefy and very sturdy looking. Its friendly in the hand, and despite its girth, has a nice balance in the teeth. This is a pipe of clear purpose. One to grab for a short smoke or when packing light is necessary. The grain is nice, with a nice coating of birds eye on the right and left hand sides and a streak of straight grain running down the left hand side of the bottom and top. The bowl ¾ of an inch wide and about 1 ¼ inches deep. Overall, the pipe is a hair under 4 inches long, 1 ½ inches wide and 1 5/8 inches tall.
In profile, the pipe has an unconventional jauntiness to it. It makes me think of Santa and his belly jiggling as he laughs. The bowl is very organic. Well shaped. Looking at it from the top though I note that the stem does not follow the line of the bowl. Where the stummel has a gentle curving to it, the stem is very flat and straight. Upon looking more closely at the profile, I can note a similar issue with the top of the stem, i.e. whereas the stummel has a gentle curve to it, the stem is abruptly straight. Though this point is much more slight than the sides, and only becomes apparent on close inspection.
My advice to address on this point is to continue the curve of the bowl into the
stem, and make a fishtail stem instead of a straight stem. I've tried to illustrate this below:
The bowl/stem junction is very well done. Better than many of my pipes to be honest. Great job Beat. I can see the barest sliver of light between bowl and stem. The stem is handcut, and a damn fine job for only your third pipe. If I remember correctly, my first few hand cut stems were disasters. Again, very well done. The button is well shaped and very symmetrical. It’s a bit fatter than I like from the front to back aspect, but that's just my preference. Top to bottom, the bit is nice and slim. Perhaps a hair could be shaved off of it, but there is nothing wrong with it as it is. Without and negative connotations, the bit thickness is average. The stem bend is a slight bit abrupt. This can happen when we don't take the time to heat the stem fully. A bit more patience would have improved this.
The slot is nicely cut with no chamfering, i.e. the entrance to the slot is at 90 degrees to the button face. I prefer slots that are trumpeted, but this, again is just preference. There are a few jagged edges to the slot. A bit more patience in shaping will alleviate this. As near as I can tell, the V of the slot is less than ¼ inch deep. This may be well within the range of some pipes. However, in my eyes, one of the hall marks of a well done hand made stem is a deep slot. There are any number of ways to achieve this. What has worked best for me is taking the blade of a scroll saw and snipping it in half. One then uses this saw blade to cut a nice deep slit in the material. The cut will be quite narrow and should be opened up with small files or a dremel fitted with a 1/16th inch drill bit. Using file, make sure to work all the way to the outside of the cut so that the slot is uniform in height. Using the dremel, make sure to use a slow slow speed and work the bit up and down as you cut sideways. One last note on using the scroll saw blade: I have had the best luck with leaving the cut a bit short on either side. In cutting the fill length of the slot with the blade, you may find yourself with marks on the outside of the slot from the blade that are hard to get rid of unless you make you slot even longer.
I noted several sanding marks on the stem, most prominently on the button face, but also on the stem itself. I found one or two sanding marks on the bowl as well, but these only became visible when the pipe was examined under a strong light. The staining is good; however I do note a drip mark that was not buffed out properly on the bowls underside. In some spots on the briar the staining seems patchy; however I attribute this to the briar itself and not the maker. Inside the bowl, there is a thin line of stain around the upper most portion of the bowl. Overall, my advice is to slow down on your sanding. Spend more time on each grit, especially the higher ones. Certainly, this is advice I could take myself.
The drilling of the pipe is fine. It looks as though a bit much force was used, as a plug of briar popped out preceding the drill bit into the bowl. Slow down. Let the bit do the work for you. Bents can some times be tricky in that if drilled as one thinks they ought to be, some times your draft hole can end up a shade high – as this one seems to be. In a straight pipe, if the draft hole is lined up properly, the bit will push trough right at the bottom of the bowl in the center. In a bent pipe however, the angle of the drilling means that if you drill the same way, your bit will come through the bowl wall higher than you want, while still terminating dead center. To correct for this, one needs to drill the bowl a bit shallower than you might think. Not a whole lot, but just a bit. It's always better to be too shallow than too deep. I've illustrated this below:
One way to make sure you get this right is to drill your draft hole first, and then drill your bowl. Also, this eliminated the possibility of a plug popping out ahead of the draft hole bit.
All in all, this is a great pipe. All the points I have made are finer points. And I have no doubt that you will get better with time, practice and patience. Great job!
Nick
This is what happened to me too. I've always owned 'economy' pipes. I got Kurt's pipe and the only real review I could give is 'This is the nicest pipe I've held'. I can't wait to get a nice chunk of time to sit back and smoke it.
Eder Mathias
. on the bowl, you described my biggest problem that I am still working on. I do feel bad, and will PM you (after band practice) with an idea to off -set it some.
In the meantime, try using a circle template or compass to draw a circle, and shape to that. Patience really plays a major part in getting that done, because without a lathe to give a starting shape, you've really got to develop a good eye and intimate familiarity with your tools.
