Ready for the Shark Tank

[SLCarrico]

Notes:
I’ve been smoking this pipe for about three months now. I cleaned her up real nice for the photo session. I am aware of the bowl coating coming off near the rim. Any suggestions on good bowl coating recipes and applications is appreciated. The stem is a modified pre-molded stem, with an integrated tenon. I was attempting a large Canadian shape. The finish is meant to be a satin sheen.
Approx. dimensions:
6” L
1.875” H
1.4375” O.D.
.75 Chamber dia.

I apologize for the subpar photography.
Thank you in advance for your time and critique

[Sasquatch]

Well, technicalities first: you've got a bit of a "smokestack" shape occurring because you've taken off just a bit too much material from the back of the bowl where it is transitioning to the shank, so it looks a little pinched - I think you were shooting for perfect symmetry, and maybe this is just to say that the billiard barrel shape isn't quite right (although I think it's pretty good), I see deflection of the shape near the shank.

The shank should be flatter, smaller, and that takes a smaller tenon - I use 1/4" tenons (delrin) for this type of pipe and it lets me make a really small, oval shank, which means a more comfortable bit and just a lower profile over all.

Almost every smoker I know (almost) would like that button about half as long as it is, they are much more comfortable that way.

[SLCarrico]

Yes. I see all that now that you mention it. Great points, thank you.
I do use delrin now almost exclusively.

[LatakiaLover]

Your best way forward? Find an existing well-shaped and well-made pipe and copy it. Imagine it's an art piece and you are a counterfeiter in a movie, or something.

Instantaneous non-stop feedback. There's no better way to learn/discover how to make your hands and tools create what your eyes see. It's like learning a musical instrument by playing music written by others (which is exactly the way it's done... no one learns the piano by composing on their first day).

Once you can successfully create what you see, THEN start designing pipes. Make drawings of what looks right/good to you, and copy the drawing (so to speak) the same way you started out copying actual pipes.

[KurtHuhn]

One thing I notice is that the bowl seems to lean back into the stem. This could be caused by what Sas mentioned, but it could also be the angle between the two - pipes with perfect 90-degree angles of bowl to shank can seem to lean backwards. A forward cant of about 1-1.5 degrees (or, really, just eyeball it, no need to involve Messers Brown and Sharpe) can make "straight" pipes look a little better.

[SLCarrico]

I agree LatakiaLover. I play guitar, and that's exactly how I learned that instrument.
I will take that route. Yet it's easy to stray from that path. I'll just have to make it a discipline.

Slight forward cant. Got it Kurt.

Thanks both of you.

[SLCarrico]

Kurt. I went and looked at some of my 90 degree pipes, I definitely saw the cant you were talking about. Thanks again.

[KurtHuhn]

Kurt. I went and looked at some of my 90 degree pipes, I definitely saw the cant you were talking about. Thanks again.