First Pipe

[collinthib]

Hello all, I'm new to the forum and to pipe making. I'm looking to get some feedback on my first go at carving. I wanted to make something akin to a Danish Freehand.

I finished this a week ago with a kit I got from Steve Norse's Vermont Freehand Ebay store. I appreciated the experience to learn about the grain. I made it more for the shape than for trying to work around the flaws in the briar, so I let a few problem areas slide. It was a lot of work with rasps, files, and tons of sandpaper. The only power tool used was my drill for buffing. I can appreciate how much faster the process would be with power tools, but I like the control I have with hand tools. The stem will be replaced with a new one I just got in the mail from PIMO's...but I can already tell that I'd much rather make my own for future freehands as it will give me more flexibility and options.



Flaws like the crack I let slide in the shank and the flaws on 'the tip of the horn'






I've been pretty impressed with the work I've seen on this forum. Hopefully I'll have something new to show on a few weeks. Thanks for any feedback.

[Alden]

Cool ! Steve posts here regularly, he has some pretty nice briar blocks in the for sale section if you are looking to start drilling your own pipes.
Feedback can come from either end of the spectrum here. On the one hand, it is a pretty clunky pipe that needs to lose a lot more briar before it will ever have a graceful look about it. On the other hand, people sell much uglier pipes on a daily basis The good part is you had a lot of fun, learned something new and found some appealling grain to highlight. You probably have the best smoking pipe you could have purchased for the money you spent, and its something you can enjoy even more knowing what went into creating it.