DocAitch wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:35 pm
Another point about your bite area- although we aim for a stem thickness of ~0.15” behind the button, our teeth actually meet the stem in front of the button (1/4”-1/2” or more). Look at the taper on both of Wayne’s pipes above. Your taper is too abrupt/steep and the stem way too thick for comfort where the teeth will actually contact it.
The "magic".15" thickness is the pipeworld equivalent of horsepower for auto engines and wattage for sound systems. Terms/things that "everyone is familiar with"---and 95% think are all that matter---because simple answers are easily marketed.
The truth is there's a lot more to the story, as any auto or audio engineer will tell you.
Pipe stem comfort involves every dimension, angle, and curve to some extent; and the perception of bite zone thickness is a combinatorial thing.
The most important relationship is button height to tooth contact area. As a general rule, the steeper the taper rate, the taller the button must be.
Since a chubby author dictates its shape by definition---meaning slimming the stem past a certain point will turn the shape into something else---the best way to be comfortable and still look like one is to not round the bite zone's cross-section too much, and not lower the button height too much. The actual, measurable thickness of the bite zone and button is secondary to overall comfort to the extent they're almost incidental as long as everything else is in harmony.
UFOs must be real. There's no other explanation for cats.
