Bodark Billiard

[Literaryworkshop]

I ended up with a bunch of short pieces of osage orange (bodark). I've heard it makes a decent pipe, and I've been wanting to try a traditional billiard.



















I just snapped the pics at my workbench, so sorry they're not crisper. Anyhow, I'll go ahead and point out two flaws, one which is obvious and one which you probably can't see from the photos. The obvious one is the shank. It's not round in cross-section, but oval. I'm not sure how much that bugs me, but I may go back and work it some more, and straighten out the sides of the stem while I'm at it. The flaw you can't see is a slight gap at the bottom of the stem-shank junction. I'm going to go fix that, but you may as well know it's there.

What else should I be learning from this pipe?

[Alden]

Not too shabby. I would like to see the bottom half just a touch fatter. You could take the top half in a touch too but it's at a good place, just the walls of the bowl are a little rigid for my taste. A little fatter bottom half would have given you just a touch more curve in the shape.

[Joe Hinkle Pipes]

IAWR. The shank is a little fat for the size of the bowl. Also the stem taper looks like a curve rather than a straight angled taper.

[wdteipen]

I agree with what's already been said but that's a pretty good looking billiard nonetheless all things considered.

[Nate]

IAWAOTA. I have the same issues you do with making a billiard and have found a couple things to help. I think the bottom curve on the front (heel) is correct (think ping pong ball cut in half) but because the *ahem* front of the bowl is so straight, it detracts from the curve making look anemic as Ryan mentioned. The second major one is the cheeks on the back are cut too far forward. When making this cuts, bring the line from the very back of the bowl straight down. Now, it should have a can't to it so by straight I mean straight with the line of the bowl. Then, only cut the cheeks as 1/4 curve, not a full curve like the front. For some reason this works for me. Hope all that made sense and IAWR.

[Literaryworkshop]

Thanks, guys.

Nate, I know exactly what you're saying about the sides of the shank/bowl transition. I wondered about it as I was doing it. I could have easily gone straight down, but I opted to swing it in a little. Straight down would have been easier. I need to go look at some more Dunhill billiards, I think.