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I'm just about ready to quit.
I just destroyed my third pipe in a row. I either mis-drill or take off too much material, putting me into an airway or a chamber.

3 in a row!
Is this normal? I guess I'm learning the limits in some respect, but I just want to finish a nice pipe for crying out loud.

learning curve... that's why you don't buy expensive briar to start off with... I've thrown my fair share of briar away.... once you get to where you don't take too much material off.. you'll find a flaw that causes the same result.. and that's even more frustrating

james

I too have had my fair share of disappointments but, I've been lucky to be able to recover from most.
I find my bigger mistakes are made when not stopping to take a breath and double checking everything
being in a kind of rush to make a pipe, I reckon kinda of a instant gratification thing. So I'm always telling myself
to slow down, double check EVERYTHING and proceed slowly. Sometimes I listen, other times .....well you know.

That's how you learn. Steve Norse sells practice blocks if you want to at least not waste too much money while you learn. I've had streaks of up to 6 ruined stummels in a row. As long as you learn from your mistakes, you will be a better pipe maker the more you screw up.

Don't give up! Don't ever give up!

3 years in I still buy cheap wood because of this

Dont make pipes when in a bad mood and think twice about everything you do, it'll get better!

If all else fails: buy more wood

Three in a row is ok. Slow down. Double check everything, including yourself before drilling.

Cheap briar, keep practising and try not to repeat the same things twice. If you keep doing something wrong then you are trying to do it too fast, slow down until you master it, then work on doing things faster. Making a pipe in 5 minutes don't mean jack shit if the pipe has a hole through the airway.

Why is it happening?

This is a process thing. Draw your shape, make your lines, cut and drill that. Double check stuff as you go.

andrew wrote:Three in a row is ok. Slow down. Double check everything, including yourself before drilling.

IAWA

Sometimes you must slow down in order to progress. Then speed up again when you are comfortable with the particular procedures.

Thanks all

SLOW. Thats my mantra starting tomorrow.
I have screwed up 3X straight because I've been trying to make progress with too much else on my mind. 2 kids, puppy, work, wife, etc....

tomorrow I'll triple check before making a move....
more to come.

I had that problem when I started....probably the first 10 pipes I made. I was (and still am) running out to the garage thinking "Okay...I have 3 minutes while that finishes cooking....let's go drill the airway." NEVER worked. I always screwed something up.

As SAS says it's a process thing, be deliberate and slow down! U can't be somewhere else in your mind or rush. If you are in a bad mood(I am most of the time!) wait till u feel better.See the process in your head as well as write it down.

There ain't no easy road. Doesn't matter who you are or who you know.

Thanks everyone. Today I took way more time and thought about exactly what I was doing. It too me about 2 minutes of staring at the calipers to realize why I have been misdrilling. I've been measuring tobacco chamber depth incorrectly each time (long story). But I now realize that every time I drill the airway, I've been going below the chamber because of this problem. Now that I've caught it, I hit bottom dead-center today.

I also took an opportunity to learn using a stummel with a broken shank. Sawed it off, faced it, inlayed ebonite and briar into a new shank and sanded flush to a stem. not perfect, but it was a good learning experience and I'm back to having fun with it.

anyway, thanks again.
-cheers

Alden wrote:There ain't no easy road. Doesn't matter who you are or who you know.

Now that there is some good music!

RDPowell wrote:
Now that there is some good music!

Fred is about the best songwriter/storyteller ever. Of course if you want happy music, go somewhere else. He mostly sings about old tractors and trains, funerals, hobos, old dogs, outlaws, and when life in general just kicks you square in the nuts. Even the songs you think are happy, once you get to listening to the lyrics you figure out the guy singing the song is on his way to prison for the rest of his life, or the happy chorus is actually just somebody at the old guys funeral remembering the good ol days. But damn if he don't know just what life is like.

His style changed with his bands over the years. I like the hick sound of the Flying Squirrels and the Flathead Noodlers most but the Traveling Roadshow he's playing with these days is a lot faster, more of a old rock and roll influence.

Balin is my favorite album by a long shot. Pipe Smoker on the cover to boot. And if you ever think life is tough, just be glad you aren't some of the poor bastards in Freds songs




When he does Rock and Roll, it usually sounds something like this;
This old man is holdin his breath, Revenuers comin and it smells like death
Rifle on his arm, the other wrapped around, leather on a leash of a bluetick hound


Elvis had one, so did Hank. It don't look like money, it looks like the Bank

Aint nothin better then cry'en in your beer music, if ya ask me sir.

You should see my briar graveyard.