A Red Apple & A Red Volcano

[taharris]

Here are my latest.

I tried my hand at a volcano





And an apple






I am fairly happy with the volcano, although I had some engineering problems with the stem.
I am really happy with the apple.

As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

[Dixie_piper]

Personally, I like both pipes. I have no further perspective on the volcano as I don't fully grasp what a volcano is supposed to look like just yet.
The apple seems to be more "prince" to me with the shanks length. That's just based how someone once related some of the billiard family shapes to me; an apple with a short shank equals prince.
Either way, I like them both

[Philthy]

I like both of them.

The second looks more like a small Brandy to me instead of an Apple tho.

The Volcano...Since I have not done this shape please take my comment with a (ok several) grain of salt. You have very nice flowing lines on it overall. The rim is a bit thin for me but that might be solely a personal thang. The thing that really struck me was with all the flowing lines you went to a glaring straight shank that breaks up all those nice flowing curves. A little bend there would tie everything together better IMO.

[Sasquatch]

...which is to say, there is no reason at all to use a round shank on that pipe, which is why doing stems from great fat pieces of rod is a better idea on a flowing, freeform shape like a volcano.

[taharris]

Those are very good comments guys.

I honestly didn't give much thought to the stem shape until you pointed it out to me.

Now I see that I could have been much more creative with it.

Thanks for the insight.

[maxmil]

Beautiful grain, and beautiful pipes.
Greetings.
Felix

[baweaverpipes]

Apologies, but the stems are much too long.

[taharris]

Bruce,

Thanks for the observation.

Is there a rule of thumb for stem length?

I realize that the decision is largely esthetic, but what is a good baseline to start with?

[KurtHuhn]

A length that looks good.

This is something that you tend to pick up as you gain more experience in learning composition and form, and how things "fit" together. I'm not aware of any rules of thumb, but I have found that a stem length of not more than the length of the shank and bowl together is a good neighborhood. Note, this doesn't always work, and depends on a number of factors. You can go longer, but it needs to be in keeping with the composition as a whole (as with churchwardens).

In other words, there's no single right answer, but there is a bunch of really wrong ones.

[wdteipen]

Bruce,

Thanks for the observation.

Is there a rule of thumb for stem length?

I realize that the decision is largely esthetic, but what is a good baseline to start with?

Another good starting place is to study the lengths of Dunhill group sizes. They are generally well proportioned.