Pipes of our lives

[Sasquatch]

Walle posts 4 pipes, I post 5! Sasquatch is the name, Utter Domination is the game!


A humungous Calabash shape, got a great piece of briar and didn't botch it! Tortoise acrylic for the stem. Goofy thing passes a cleaner and everything.



Paired rustic apples -





Monster Oom Paul, Sasquatch style:



And this year's straight pipe:



Okay, well it was cheating to use a pair of matched pipes for the count, but what the hell.

[Dixie_piper]

Very nice Todd!
I like the rusty apples best

[Nate]

Nice work sir.

[CastAxe]

Very nice pipes. I do think that the calabash could be a little bit wider towards the top of the bowl for my tastes though. But all in all you make some excellent pipes

[Sasquatch]

Axe, I've done about 10 big flared Calabashes recently, this blonde one was kind of inspired by a nice little Ashton I saw. I mighta bought the Ashton but at the last second I noticed that it was over-represented in the photos and was a really tiny pipe - like 4.5" long kinda thing. So I hit the shop and made a Sasquatch version. But it came out too nice to keep.

Here's a mushroom top more to your liking I hope.

[TRS]

Really nice work. I especially like the calabash and the longshank.

[LAH]

very nice.

[CastAxe]

Axe, I've done about 10 big flared Calabashes recently, this blonde one was kind of inspired by a nice little Ashton I saw. I mighta bought the Ashton but at the last second I noticed that it was over-represented in the photos and was a really tiny pipe - like 4.5" long kinda thing. So I hit the shop and made a Sasquatch version. But it came out too nice to keep.

Here's a mushroom top more to your liking I hope.

That pipe is gorgeous, and i would like to take back what i posted earlier. Upon looking at a similar pipe that i own (a savinelli) i realize that the shape of that calabash is indeed perfect. My apologies

[Sasquatch]

Um, don't "take it back". I don't really think there's one "right" calabash shape. To me a calabash is just about any blending of a horn and a dublin, whether you go so far as to copy outright the idea of a seperate interior bowl (as seen on a proper gourd calabash) or if it is just the overall scoop shape that a guy is after. Like I said, the yellow pipe was basically a blow-up of an Ashton, and whether you call it a calabash or a saxophone or a freehand, it matters not, and a guy still has a right to prefer a more flared top, a la the Peterson 05 shape.

[Walle]

Believe it or not: I´d go for the straight one.
Would like to see the other side though.

Cheerio!
Walle

[wdteipen]

Very nice work sas. I especially like the apples.

[Tyler]

Todd is generally the resident critic, and that is often very helpful for the new guys. Frankly, having been around (albeit with some extended absences) for the full seven (or whatever) years of the life of this board, it gets tiring critiquing the same errors out of new pipe maker's pipes. Todd seems to be tireless in that effort, much to the benefit of the new guys on the board.

So far, everyone on this thread is giving the typical nod, so I thought I'd return the favor and be a critic. This critique is in the spirit of presuming that Todd's care in critiquing others is because he is a student of pipe aesthetics. It seems to be something he cares a lot about, so I presume he cares about getting his stuff just right.

I hope this helps.

You are making the same oopsy on all of the pipes. You are cutting the "cheeks" in too far. They are not mirroring the other side of the bowl. The oom paul, the second calabash, and the straight pipe exhibit this the most. You never give a profile of the apples, so I can't tell on those.

On the apple, the shank extension has a very sharp stop, then has a stem with rounded over features. I don't think that goes together very well. I'd suggest sharper features on the stem. I also think the stem should be thinned as it exits the "features" area.

The saddle on the oom paul is too long. I suspect you did it because the shank is on the short side--and that can often be a good solution for a shorter shank--but I find it works better to do an inlay in the saddle to extend the shank. A long saddle with no contrasting material just looks funny. Also, the shank should drop a little lower. If you can get it low enough to have a nice unified arc with the bottom of the bowl, that would be best.

On the straight pipe, you rounded the top of the bowl in for the last 3/8" or so. It looks amateurish. Going up the outside of the bowl from bottom to top you have curve, straight-ish line, curve. On the inside of the bowl the "cheeks" cut in too far, then there is an angled, mostly-straight-up line, then a quick angle in to the top of the bowl. It doesn't match the other side. Also the stem is a bit wavy, and the top and bottom of the saddle don't look symmetrical.

Your rustication just sort of stops arbitrarily on the shanks. A precise line of demarkation would look nicer, IMO.

One final note, and let me say this is the pot calling the kettle black, but your photos could be improved. What I mostly mean is the choice of background material should change. The checkering pattern acts as an optical allusion, and might be exaggerating some of the things I critiqued. I recommend a solid background.

[Sasquatch]

Much appreciated Tyler. I agree with a lot of what you've posted, particularly with regard to the Lovat. Here's the other side for Walle, and the top.





I also agree that the Oom Paul is a little ugly in terms of curve and ordinarily I balance them differently, but I've been looking at the Castello 97 lately and thought I'd try shaping something more "chin heavy". (The 97 has a longer shank and winds up being very hard to drill in a way I'd call decent. I threw a block away yesterday.) So yes, taking the shank further could be done, but I actually had (and have) room to take a lot off the bowl if I want to, and get a different curve and a different balance on the shape. Oddly enough, I get a lot of compliments on the arbitrariness of the rustication demarcation. So that's probably one of those love it/hate it things. For the stem, I think I agree, now I see it. The barrel is pretty dominant and should have been done with either some kind of offsetting trim and/or just proportioned differently.

The apples do not have a shank extension at all ( ). The have a ring of lucite on the stem itself. I was so happy that this worked at all, that I may not have shaped things quite as carefully as I could have. In a sense, I was maybe more focused on making them identical than on getting the proportion just right. The whole idea of the pipe came from an Ardor.

My photos suck. I will build a light box. I will work on cheek symmetry (cuz you're right). I will fire 40 rounds a minute and they will all be headshots.

Thanks for the detailed criticism, Tyler.

[bandkbrooks]

Sas you do indeed get better and better. I really like the lovat. It might just be the photo but does the bottom of the bowl dip slightly below the shank?

Shank extension vs. Stem extension: any thought about what is preferred or are both perfectly acceptable?

[Sasquatch]

The lovat's REAL flat on the bottom. Maybe it's.... maybe it's your eyes OH MY GOD SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR!!!

I have no idea if a shank extension is preferable to a stem adornment if the net result is the same. On a really bent pipe I can see having an easier time working with the shorter stummel and doing the "fun" on the stem.

But the fact is, I don't care what's preferred. I couldn't think of a good way to easily machine this cap onto the pipes, and didn't know if I wanted an acrylic sleeve for a rubber stem etc, so I just glued the bastards together and faked it.

[Dixie_piper]

So Todd, at the level you rank yourself as a serious hobbyist, have you given thought to starting yourself a website? I have no idea how many pipes you pump out, but I'd be willing to bet it's enough to keep fans browsing through for your latest piece.
Just a curiosity, because I know I've often linked off to some makers pages from the forum here, and I keep expecting a link on your posts. I think I've looked 1/3 of the way through Rad's pipes page (only 593 of em on there!) and in the midst of browsing often come back to the gallery here to look at your work and others as well.
I'll shut up now, just being nosey.