4 Christmas bent Billiards

[Ocelot55]

Well after a lot of headaches and hard work here are the first four pipes I produced on my new lathe. Bent billiards all. Some aren't as good as others. Let me know what you guys think.

[d.huber]

Congratulations on finishing that commission! The black and tall green billiards are my favorites of the bunch.

[Ocelot55]

Thanks David. Those taller billiards are obviously more proportionally correct than the other ones. I don't know about you folks, but I find bent billiards much more difficult to execute well than a straight billiard. I'm still not completely comfortable with shaping on the lathe, and while I wasn't shooting for 4 exact copies two of these pipes are almost bent pots as opposed to billiards.

[Growley]

Good work Ocelot. I really like the shape of the tallest green one.

[JonBood]

Very well performed!
I wouldn't mind having those on my shelf

[d.huber]

Those taller billiards are obviously more proportionally correct than the other ones... I'm still not completely comfortable with shaping on the lathe, and while I wasn't shooting for 4 exact copies two of these pipes are almost bent pots as opposed to billiards.

Exactly. However, there's a lot to be proud of in these pipes. Your stems look very good, the stems have a nice flush fit to the shanks, and most importantly, they all have that "smoke me" quality. Your proportions are very good and all of them have a nice flow to them.

The flaw on the blue one is big enough that I think it might've warranted rustication. The finish on the that one is very uneven. However, you know all of this already.

Keep hammering away at your lathe shaping and stay focused when you're finishing your pipes. Finishing, for me anyway, takes the longest of any step in the process and is the most frustrating and trying part of making a pipe. If you keep your focus strong and take breaks when you get frustrated, the rewards of a beautifully finished pipe far outweigh the trials. Advice that I would benefit from heeding myself.

[Sasquatch]

Taking an idea for a pipe shape, transferring it to paper and/or to a block, then being able to only sort of start the shape on the lathe... it takes some practice before you'll start to really see just where you are headed, to be able to know that you've cut the right shape.

Those pipes came out good considering this. I think I like the shaping on the blue one the best.

[Ocelot55]

Taking an idea for a pipe shape, transferring it to paper and/or to a block, then being able to only sort of start the shape on the lathe... it takes some practice before you'll start to really see just where you are headed, to be able to know that you've cut the right shape.

Those pipes came out good considering this. I think I like the shaping on the blue one the best.

Which blue one, Sas? To me the slate blue one is shaped much better than the bright blue one.

I personally like the tall green on the best. I tried to focus on what you told bandkbrooks about his bent billiards, how the lowest point on the bottom of the pipe should be closer to the bit, not dividing the bowl bilaterally. In this respect the bright blue one is an utter failure but the others are alright. The last green one, to me has too long of a shank for the bowl height, but the other three might have shanks that are just a smidgen too short

Another thing I struggled with was how much to define the bowl from the shank. On the middle two I used an Ashton as a model. While the top of the shank on the Ashton was well defined but the sides of the shank near the bowl, not so much.

By contrast, I fond a couple of photos of a Former bent billiard online. The bowl on his pipe was very well defined from the shank. Basically a straight shank with no taper attached to the bowl. I feel however that most English bent billiards do taper from the end of the shank to the bowl and that is what I did.

Anyway, that's my thought process. Any ideas or comments, anybody?

[Sasquatch]

Which blue one? The blue one. There's a blue one, 2 greens, and a poop-colored one.

When you are doing "simple" bent shapes like this, one of the biggest things to pay attention too is where the lowest line of the curve is at, on the bottom of the shape. If you look at almost every sharp-looking 1/2 bent pipe, from Peterson, to Castello to Dunhill.... that occurs WELL back of the chamber's midline, sometimes almost as far back as the outside wall of the chamber. What this accomplishes is a slight separating of bowl and shank, and it "unheavies" the business end of the pipe.

You are drifting in the right direction, but it could certainly be amplified.

[Ocelot55]

Which blue one? The blue one. There's a blue one, 2 greens, and a poop-colored one.

It's amazing how the exact same finishing technique can look based only on the origin of the briar. I stained that one blue and was like... wtf

[Sasquatch]

Absolutely true. Add into that the fact that when two customers call something a tanblast one means "natural" and the other means "dark brown" so if you actually do a tanblast finish, neither will like it.


I love making pipes. Really. I swear.

[andrew]

Absolutely true. Add into that the fact that when two customers call something a tanblast one means "natural" and the other means "dark brown" so if you actually do a tanblast finish, neither will like it.


I love making pipes. Really. I swear.

Just tell them the most natural one is more poop colored and they should let you choose a better color