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I'm not totally pleased with the bowl shape, looks a lot more eggish than I had planned for. Anyway, looking more for transition and initial stem shaping criticism, especially from Scottie or Wayne. Of course if you see something out of whack, please do point it out. Could be a nice pipe without all the flaws in the briar.

You made the chamber too wide for the bowl proportions. That decision forced you to not be able to bring in the top of the bowl without making the rim too narrow.

Ditto, nice flush stem fit

Thanks guy's, I think I'm getting my transitions down better. My stem fit seems to be going ok too. I gave up on using a forstner bit and have started using my parting tool to face the mortise. Jeremiah, Thanks, I now see that Scottie is using a much smaller chamber in hers.

Doug535 wrote:Thanks guy's, I think I'm getting my transitions down better. My stem fit seems to be going ok too. I gave up on using a forstner bit and have started using my parting tool to face the mortise. Jeremiah, Thanks, I now see that Scottie is using a much smaller chamber in hers.

My chambers are usually always 3/4" in diameter

Usually always isn't a thing, just fwiw.

Proportion. Authors are hard in the first place, and proportion is half the battle on any pipe, so while there's a bunch of good/right about this, there's a bunch of jarring stuff - the shank is more than 1/2 the height of the bowl, just as a quick example, so it's gonna be real hard to do anything but sort of caveman shaping in that area - it's taking up so much of the pipe. I think you want to draw about a dozen pipes, and make the best one, and make it accurately to the plan - plan your work, work your plan as Walt Cannoy used to say.

Sasquatch wrote:Usually always isn't a thing

Usually always makes something like the word of God! Don't you know anything?

I'm married. Haven't known anything for 20 years.

Sasquatch wrote:I'm married. Haven't known anything for 20 years.

This ^

Sasquatch wrote:Usually always isn't a thing, just fwiw.

Proportion. Authors are hard in the first place, and proportion is half the battle on any pipe, so while there's a bunch of good/right about this, there's a bunch of jarring stuff - the shank is more than 1/2 the height of the bowl, just as a quick example, so it's gonna be real hard to do anything but sort of caveman shaping in that area - it's taking up so much of the pipe. I think you want to draw about a dozen pipes, and make the best one, and make it accurately to the plan - plan your work, work your plan as Walt Cannoy used to say.

I grabbed a couple rocks and a chunk of flint that was laying around and chipped away caveman style at it, now it looks like this. I know this one isn't going to win any contests, but I'm using it as a learning experience for getting the swoop on the underside and try to get my side lines down. Hopefully with each screw up I'll learn a lil bit more. Feel free to let me know what I need to do from here, stem lines wise.

I think that looks vastly better.

Thanks SAS, any tips on where to go on the stem shaping from here or am I good there? Anybody?

The bend happens too far toward the button end of the stem. It's also somewhat under bent. How much more? The top of the bowl should be a few degrees below a line drawn through the bite zone.

Also, don't take off any more material until AFTER you bend it more (and farther back). The "heat, bend, and walk away" thing only works for saddles/blades. Tapered stems need two part shaping---before bending, and then again after.

Finally, try to have at least one photo in any set that is a dead-square profile.

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The lines show the angle difference between the plane of the bowl top and the the plane of the bite zone.

The arrows show where the bend starts and ends.

Thanks George, that info helps a lot.