Dinosaur Egg...

[JMG]

This was supposed to be a commission, but a flaw in the bottom of the shank forced my hand I didn't like the way it turned out. So, I turned it into a churchwarden, sandblasted it and stained it blue (Crazy-go-nuts ) Any it at least turned out fun and I managed to actually get a little bit of a contrast stain on this blast which I haven't achieved before. The biggest downfall on this one (there are many) is that the accent ring on the stem isn't doesn't have a big enough face and so the shank face appears to have a bit of gap...it's flush, just rounded on the outside due to this. Critiques are greatly appreciated.

Oh, and while blasting this pipe I found it to be ridiculously more hard than the others I have done. I stayed on it and stayed on it, and had very little briar removed. Without having a second cabinet with more aggressive material how could a guy go about getting better results? (Sorry for the crap pics.)

[sandahlpipe]

Oh, and while blasting this pipe I found it to be ridiculously more hard than the others I have done. I stayed on it and stayed on it, and had very little briar removed. Without having a second cabinet with more aggressive material how could a guy go about getting better results?

I don't know what your blasting setup is, but I think you'd get better results with a better air compressor, rather than going the more aggressive media route. A combination of a good blast cabinet, 170/320 media and a good two-stage compressor give me good results every time. Some briar is harder than other briar, though.

[JMG]

Oh, and while blasting this pipe I found it to be ridiculously more hard than the others I have done. I stayed on it and stayed on it, and had very little briar removed. Without having a second cabinet with more aggressive material how could a guy go about getting better results?

I don't know what your blasting setup is, but I think you'd get better results with a better air compressor, rather than going the more aggressive media route. A combination of a good blast cabinet, 170/320 media and a good two-stage compressor give me good results every time. Some briar is harder than other briar, though.

Thanks Jeremiah. I've only blasted three other pipes so far so my knowledge and experience is still very limited. However, the others went much easier. In fact, I had to take care as to not removed to much material. I am currently using extra-fine glass beads as my medium. This piece of briar though just seemed extremely hard. Actually, it also had a very different smell while sanding it...kind of stunk.