Another newbie, another 1st pipe.

[Lowpockets]

Hi all,

First off, I would like to thank everyone for creating this great community and helping schmucks like me ruin blocks of briar.

I finished my first pipe last night and thought I would share it.

Feel free to give me some pointers, but keep in mind -I'm not trying to sell these things, it's my first time, and this may be the first time I've used sand paper since the 90's.

Bowl: PIMO pre-drilled briar
Stem: PIMO vulcanite churchwarden
Extension 1: Acrylic acetate
Extension 2: Bethlehem Olive Wood
Tenon: White Acetal (Delrin)

The images you are about to see are in no way intended to discredit the quality of the materials of the aforementioned distributors or manufacturers. Any and all defects shown are due to the poor craftsmanship and ungainliness of the poster of the photos.

Kind regards,
Low Pockets

[Lowpockets]

more views:

[Lowpockets]

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[Lowpockets]

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[Charl]

Did you enjoy it?

[BLC]

well now...I'd say you're well on you way....keep up the great work.

[Lars J.P Johansson]

Hey!
I'm also a newbie so I can't really give you so much constructive criticism, but I can tell you that I like the look on your pipe, cool design and nice piece of wood!
Keep it up!

[d.huber]

First pipe, eh? What's your background and how many have you tried to make before this one?

[andrew]

Nice first pipe.
You made some nooks/crannies that are not necessary and made your pipe nearly impossible to finish uniformly.
Remember, ornamentation should be done with a purpose, not just for the sake of it. If you didn't reinforce the olivewood, it's possible it will split over time. Just depends on how tight your fit is. I would not have used the acetal. It's distracting. Stem polishing looks alright. Pictures are decent, so good on that.
Make more, maybe something classic. That would be more helpful for us to give you advice.

andrew

[irish_lord99]

It almost looks as if the stem was glued into the olivewood?

As a rank beginner myself, I'm in awe of the overall results.

[Lowpockets]

Charl- I did enjoy it. I think some more practice will reduce the frustrations though!

BLC & Lars- thanks!

Uber- I had already started on my second pipe while waiting for materials to arrive for this pipe. But this is indeed my first.

Andrew- The Delrin runs through the olive wood, and I think it is pretty snug. Hopefully the acrylic will insulate it and isolate it from the bowl. The nooks were a bit much for a rookie, and very hard to get at with sand paper. I think they were a cover-up for not being confident in making something symmetrical (I'm using a dremel for rough shaping and carving knives), hence the less-classic styling.

Irish- the stem and olive wood are butt-up and glued to each other. And thanks!

I appreciate the feed back, especially from the seasoned folks -who, all by the way, have fantastic work on their websites!

[Charl]

Cool! That's what it's about! Looking forward to see more.

[d.huber]

I asked because I'm impressed. I'd still like to know what your background is in.

Andrew gave you a lot of great advice. I have a few things that I might mention about the shaping, but I'm interested to see what your next couple of pipes look like before I chime in with anything in depth.

Looking forward to it.

[Lowpockets]

I certainly appreciate the compliment; but I hope you recognize that you, along with the other contributors to this forum, ultimately deserve the credit. I would have given up shortly after the box of briar arrived without the help.

I am a designer. I design tank and vessel internals for the oil and gas industry -based on the fluid dynamics, rheology, and purpose of the equipment. My job is pretty boring. However, my studies at school were much more diversified within the realm of design and I do consider myself "creative". As far as workshop experience ...I pay my neighbor in beer to hang pictures for me.

Andrew has a great point in that: a good critique, requires an available benchmark to measure by. I get that. To be honest, I think the classic shapes will be much harder to achieve at my skill level. Also one of the reasons I decided to build my own pipes was to add some original shapes to my rack -so I am going to experiment!

Eventually I will try something more familiar. My second pipe (which is already started and much more unorthodox than the first) likely won't fit into a classic category (a poker at best). But if in the mean time you see something I could improve on -I sincerely appreciate any advice.

[d.huber]

To be honest, I think the classic shapes will be much harder to achieve at my skill level.

Much harder to achieve at any skill level. The guys who can make one in their sleep can do that because they've made 100+ that weren't, then made a 100+ more that were almost, then made 100+ that passed for a classic. There are exceptions to this, but most folks can't just hammer out a billiard without trial and error.