Another Dublin'ish pipe...

[JMG]

Too many sand pits in this one so had to rusticate it. Not my best work at all, but my lightest pipe ever. Coming in at 5 1/2" long and only 21 grams. The rustication isn't my favorite, but I think my biggest gripe after having finished it is that I now notice a few places that I missed the top layer.





*Sorry, Wayne, I forgot to sand the chamber*

[Joe Hinkle Pipes]

Im not a fan of rustication but it looks like you did a nice even job. The top of the bowl looks odd to me. It looks like the rim is cut on a different plane than the walls. The bowl cants forward and the rim leans back.

[sandahlpipe]

Not too late to sand the chamber, you know.

Biggest thing to fix here is the stem. You've got lots of light wobbles to fix. You shouldn't be able to see the stem protrude above or below the shank line. It should be a straight line from the shank to the end of the saddle. The sides of the flat area are uneven. It looks like the stem pinches right where it meets the saddle. Finally, it looks like you've got a light gap between the stem and shank.

The idea to cut the top of the bowl at a different angle isn't necessarily wrong. It makes it look racy. But focus your attention on stem work next and worry about shape refining once you've got a good stem.

[The Smoking Yeti]

But focus your attention on stem work next and worry about shape refining once you've got a good stem.

Just focus on each step when you get to it.

Jeremiah is right about the stem though. Good stems make unique designs sing.

As far as the angle of the top, it does look speedy, but it feels lacking somewhere. I think if you subtly curved the top panel forward to flow with the cant of the bowl, it would still have a speedy look, but it would be more visually balanced.

[JMG]

Thanks a tonfor all the advice guys.

Michael, do you mean to make to front of the pipe a bit concave?

[The Smoking Yeti]

I mean to make the top of the bowl line curve convexly down towards teh front. It could be a subtle curve, but I think some curve- even if subtle- would do wonders.

[JMG]

Oh ok, gotcha. Thanks bud.

[wdteipen]

It wouldn't be a bad pipe if you sanded out the tobacco chamber.


All kidding aside, I like it. I agree with Micah that curving the shank side of the rim would really make this one stand out. Stem work isn't bad. It just needs a little dialing in and finessing. How thick is the bit behind the button? It looks a little thick. When you go flat the whole length of the stem after the saddle it tends to look that way. I very slight, gradual taper from the saddle looks more graceful unless you go ultra thin the whole way and cut a really deep slot, IMHO.