pipemakersforum.com

Working on the stem for billiard #6. Any critique/pointers on my initial shaping would be appreciated.

From the side views, get that convex line from the shank face to the button dead straight. What you've got going on now gets called "blimpy", I believe. Doing that without also grinding down the end of the shank is the hard part, although I'd swear I've looked at pictures of Dunhills where that taper starts about 3/8" into the shank...

Use a straight edge to ensure a flat line top and bottom of the stem. I use a 3" machinist square. It shouldn't rock and you shouldn't see any light under it.

To get it flat, use a file held askew. I use a vulcrylic or bastard file for that step.

As for the shank, it's better to have the taper extend into the shank slightly than have a blimpy stem, but best is to have the taper go right up to the shank face and stop.

Thanks guy's, I'll correct it and repost.

Ended up just making another stem. May have gotten a little carried away with the taper and ran it back into the shank. I really appreciate all of the input and help, I AM going to get this down. Thoughts?

Now that it's flat, blend the top and bottom into the sides again. Make sure the sides of the stem remain flat with the shank.

Between the green and orange arrows, it's flat.

Between the orange and red arrows, there's a rise/bulge.

Okie-doke, doing a little at a time, hope I'm not being too big of a PITA.

Very mucher more gooderer.

Now it looks like you sanded/filed into the shank. Make sure your shank lines are all straight before you go to finishing. The taper on the shank is just a bit too steep it seems.

IAWS

(I was only paying attention to the flatness of the stem lines, before, since that's where the problem was. Sorry.)

Billiard shanks are tough. Not enough taper and they look wrong, too much and they look wrong... and the range where everything looks right is very small.

If you're planning on sandblasting and gradually getting more aggressive on the shank towards the bowl, your taper is good. If you're leaving it smooth, it's a bit drastic.

Thanks Jeremiah, George and Wayne. It is going to be blasted, but I did do some work on the shank. If it were going to be a smoothie, would this be acceptable now? Or take it down more?

When I do a straight shank, there’s almost no taper at all to the sides of the shank. Maybe less than 1/2° so I would take it down just a little bit more for a smooth. For blasting, I leave a bit more material towards that part of the shank so I have more material to work with for fading the blast deeper towards the bowl. I applaud you for staying with it this far.

On straight billiards, I barely taper the shank like Jeremiah. Just enough to counter the reverse taper illusion created when it's dead straight.

Didn't wanna start a new topic, so I'll just post it here. I went ahead and blasted so I have that done so I can continue on the stem work. Think I did a halfway decent fade on the shank/stem transition and tried not to destroy the overall shape, cleaned it up a bit and here I am. As always I would appreciate all critique and pointers.

The blast fading into the stem looks very good to my eye - maybe just a hair too much taken off at the bottom. But overall, very nice. I think I will try this on my next blast.