My latest work

[Dotter]

Hello guys, I haven't posted any of my recent pipe for a while, so - here they are. I've been working a lot lately, with lots of different materials..
Please, feel free to comment.

Tulip

[Dotter]

Freehand with bocote ring

[Dotter]

White Olivewood chubby nosewarmer

[Dotter]

Olivewood with ebony ring
Tamper made of same materials as used on a pipe.

[Dotter]

Contrast stained freehand

Tamper made of spalted maple.

[Dotter]

Olivewood chubby nosewarmer.
Tamper made out of olivewood, ebony and acryl.

[tsalagi]

The two freehands are outstanding. Very nice work...

[Abi Natur]

Wonderful lines and a amazing contrast coloration on the briar freehand.The Tampers are matched to the pipes in a perfect symbiosis!My favorite is the bocote ring freehand.

Great work you did !

[TimGeorge]

Great work, and nice pictures as well. I agree that the freehands really stand out. The first is my favorite of the group, and the second has an excellent contrast stain. Congrats.

[Dotter]

Thank you very much for your kind words!
It's good to hear such a compliments from a fellow pipemakers.

[Sorringowl]

I love your freehands! And I really like that you stained the upper inside rim of the tobacco chamber on the one with the bocote ring! Very nice touch! Would you care to describe a little bit about your staining method? The color is very rich and deep. Looks like a lot of work went into these, especially, the finishing.

[MenguantE]

I think this is my first post... and you deserve it!!.. i liked your pipes so much (sorry my pity english, i'm from Chile)...
I love Olivewood...

Congrats!!

[loosvelt]

Great work Dotter!

Question sir, do you make the metal part of your tampers or do you buy them? If you buy them, where do you get them?

-Nate

[Dotter]

Thank you, guys!! I'm really happy that you like my pipes. Great!

About finishing... it is simple, but maybe a little bit time consuming. Prepare lot of elbow grease
Somebody allready described this kind of procedure here, I just tweaked it up a little bit.

- rough shaping on spinning wheel, grit 80
- finer shaping by hand, sanding paper grit 100
- sanding paper 180
- sanding paper 240
- sanding paper 400 (from this step forward I do not touch wood with bare hands, only with leather gloves. This prevents that moisture from the hands moists the wood and later creates uneven penetration of stain colours)
- sanding paper 800
- sanding paper 1000
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- heating the pipe with heatgun. It has to be very hot, but not so hot that wood changes it colour or start to burn.
- staining with black stain, alcohol based. You have to apply the stain immediately after you stop heating the pipe, while it is hot. Stain has to make that whsssss sound when you apply it to hot wood. I apply two or three coats of black stain, and I dont heat her every time, just before first layer. When the wood is hot, colour penetrates deeper. That is why the heating. This is a good test for the future pipe to be, if it has some big hidden flaws, it will crack during this heating. Better now, than later when her new owner starts to smoke her and when you spend a lot of time and effort to make her.
- resting and drying. At least 24 hours!
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- sanding paper 1200 - you have to sand black staining from the lighter grain. Be carefull so you dont make unevenly sanded spaces. When you are satisfied with the „lightnes“ of those light grains, and „darkness“ of your darker grains, move to next step
- sanding paper 1200
- sanding paper 1500
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- again, heating the pipe with heatgun.
- staining with yellow (or orange, depending of the effect you are trying to get) stain, water based. I apply two or three coats of stain, every time you aplly a new level of stain the colour is richer but somewhat darker.
- resting and drying. At least 24 hours!
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- sanding paper 2000 - sand lightly the whole pipe. Don't go too deep, and sand her evenly, just to smooth her up a bit!
- sanding paper 2500 - final sanding
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- again, heating the pipe with heatgun.
- staining with yellow (or orange) stain, water based. Sometimes, the result can be lightly green-ish or blue-ish effect. To avoid that, put a few drops of red stain to your final yellow stain.
- resting and drying. At least 24 hours!
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- polishing with brown compound
- polishing with white compound
- polishing with carnauba
- heating the pipe with heatgun. You can see how the carnauba wax penetrates into the wood.
- resting 24 hours
- polishing with carnauba
- heating the pipe with heatgun.
- resting 24 hours
- polishing with carnauba

Your pipe is finished now!! The wood is well protected, wax is deep in the surface of the wood and you know that after all this heating your pipe will last a long time. It is unlikely that her new owner will ever heat her up to the point as you did, and that it will crack because of some hidden flaw.
Hope this helped

[Dotter]

Great work Dotter!

Question sir, do you make the metal part of your tampers or do you buy them? If you buy them, where do you get them?

-Nate

This metal part is aluminium rivet. Now I'm searching the way to make a pin also on my tampers.
I'm buying them here in Croatia, one local company makes them.

[MenguantE]

Thanks for the tip on polishing the pipes.

[Dotter]

Chubby pipe with ebony.
Photos are a bit dark so you can't see the best that this is ruby red finish on a black contrast base.

[Sorringowl]

This is gorgeous! I love the dark stains on your pipes! I imagine it takes a lot of work to get the stain to be so dark yet still have all that contrast. How do you avoid getting the inside lip of the tobacco chamber from getting stained too? or do you just sand it away after you're done? Very nice!

[Dotter]

Thank you, Sorringowl!
Regarding top part of tobacco chamber and avoiding it getting stained also... You can't really avoid it 100%, because wood soaks this stains, so I just sand it after staining and drying.

[Abi Natur]

Dotter,
as always your distinguished style is recognizable especially on your chubby!The staining and finish is really top notch,and such elegant tampers are bringing the strawberry on top of the cake.

Abi