NOTE: this was written as a Work In Progress!
This is the second project pipe Paul (Larrysson Pipes) sent me and I have to say this one has me really excited yet at the same time more than a little daunted.
I have spent considerable time trying to see what sort of shape wants to emerge from this piece of wood whilst considering the shaping Paul has already done.
Something there is screaming Ramses, I get this because I wanted to be able to keep as much of the existing base Briar as possible.
I am probably over reaching my abilities here as I don't have the sort of equipment required for such detailed work but I would love to be able to pull it off.
Of course Paul was aiming for a simple Bent Billiard by the looks of things but as I say, I would like to keep more of the Briar intact if possible.
Me being me I wanted to make my own thing, so I ended up making this:
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/BS-Ramsau_zps4517e055.jpg)
This is how it looked:
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/IMG_1878_zps93464bc2.jpg)
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/IMG_1877_zps70ed9bc6.jpg)
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/IMG_1865_zps63d6feda.jpg)
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/IMG_1864_zps34b8f991.jpg)
Well, Jim suggested a Cup & Saucer and I was quite intrigued by the idea but I really rather wanted to try to get a Ramses sort of thing from it so I could keep more of the base of the block intact.
I have opted for a truly home-grown shape and step outside of the norms, I really love some of the pipes that Downie carves, his take on radical variants of known shapes are nothing short of fabulous.
Now I aint a carver like him and I am far from experienced in working with Briar so my effort is a million miles away from work by experienced carvers but I am petty pleased with how it is going.
I have decided to go with a sort of cross between a Ramses and a Cup & Saucer, like I said, this is a completely home-grown shape and isn't meant to look like anything in particular other than the shape I saw in the wood, love or hate it, it's what it is.
Here's after just about 6 hours of filing, the shape is nearly there:
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/refs/stage1_zpsf86d9cdf.jpg)
This is after about 2 hours of finishing off the filing and some rough sanding:
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/refs/stage2_zps1c5c5876.jpg)
I still have a long ways to go but I am very pleased with it so far, will post again when I am finished.
Well here she is, I still can't get my camera to take good photo's and I'll be if I can't keep the darn thing from shaking, some of the photo's aint so great, I'll take better ones tomorrow in the daylight.
![Image](http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o679/BriarSpirit/OldFartsPipes/refs/RamsesCup_zps5fa02905.jpg)
Alas the better pictures never happened as my camera fell victim to our younger daughters antics and is no longer amongst the living so to speak, being so skint we can't afford a new camera so I may not get better pictures up at all, sorry folks!