Wow, thank all you guys for your feedback.
I'll try to reply you all...
@Brandon, @Nate
I just have a simple set of tools: Dremel, band sander, drill press and the usual other stuffs, files, rasps, dozens of grits of sandpaper, some weird handmade tools. The band sander I bought about 3 months ago and the drill press about 2 months ago. So, mostly I'm still discovering what I can do with them. I also had a small band saw that I burned down... it was too weak to cut bigger pieces of wood. My manual saws are more reliable
There are two things that I always take with me. First, if someone makes, I can make and make it better (or at least I can try). Second, in the past any handwork was made with very rustic tools, mostly handmade ones, and those guys were making some pretty impressive work that even nowadays are not easy to be reproduced. Even after years of studies, having the best teachers ever, having access to all the literature... some master pieces cannot be made once again by someone else. I don't consider myself an artist; I may have the right hands for making stuffs. I'm also an engineer, but my taste for
making came much time before any degree. I guess my regular carrier helped me out about being an analyst of my woodwork too.
More complex shapes, or small details, or fine work can't be made using only machines. So here is the dilemma. If you stick only with what some machine can do, you give away your creativity. If you stick only with your creativity, you have basically nothing. The way is to find the balance. Besides, any machine is pretty helpful but it can't replace your hands. I would like very much to have a lathe to speed up what I take hours to do today.
The clean work of the Tribal pipe was gotten with Dremel, sandpaper and Gillette blades
I went up to 600 grit on sandpaper, after came the tattoo subject, later the rustication. Then the edges of the subject were finished with the blades. After that, my usual finishing: sandpaper, stain, sandpaper... till 2000 grit. Some shellac, #000 steel wool to have even shellac distribution, polishing with blue Tripoli only, wax... There are some carving knifes, very precise ones. I never could find them in the way I'm think they should be (If some someone knows a website with such stuff, please let me know!). So, till I find what I want I'll keep on my crap solution with cheap Gillette blades. There is an older pipe that I made last year. It was my pipe #12:
Gokstad. It got some Celtic knots. Tribal is my pipe #53. I guess since that time my hands got a bit more accurate.
@tNd
Yes, they get with dark shade faster than pipes with wider walls. I saw a thread of yours ("
pipe become darker while smoking it...") and it's just like that. In my little experience, the heel is the part which is exposed to higher temperature and it becomes darker than any other part. After, comes the foot and the opposite part of the heel, on top on the shank where it finds the bowl. To get darker pipe after several smokes is just normal. The wood gets used to the heat then it gets darker. It doesn't mean that the wood is burning down and it’s going to crack any time soon. It can even crack, but you have to have a bad wood quality which wasn’t properly curate or there are some hidden flaws which with high temperature will open up. Also, good part of the conservation of a pipe is on the pipesmoker. A very well curate briar has a long lifetime even if the bowl walls are thin... of course they can't be toooooo much thin. In another thread, Daniel (DMI) posted something that the idea I resumed here: briar is the ultimate wood for pipes. I totally agree. Other woods may be amazing too, but never with the briar longevity.
@Sasquatch, @James, @Abi
Thank you guys, I like when you guys say which ones you liked the most. That's very personal, I mean, the taste for something. Some like a lot something but others hate. But I guess there's a common concept of beauty of at least "pleasant to the eyes".
@ToddJohnson
Thanks man. I don't like all of my pipes either. Some I really don't like. They are just not my taste. But they may be the taste of someone else
I guess I've improved quiet a lot more recently. Any handwork needs time anyway. As much longer you do, better your work is.
Actually I put my pipes on sale on my website
http://mrhydepipes.com. Eventually someone buys some... other guys request custom pipes. But I don't have a good flow of sales. I went to a pipe show in Germany last March. People liked what I had to show but I didn't sell as many I would like. It's difficult from someone who is outside of the circle to get inside and starting making deals. I trying to work out on that... but I'm a better maker than a seller. I live
just overseas in France... but we can set something, I’ll PM you later on (my fiancée is pissing me off to watch a romantic movie).
Cheers,
Eder.
