Sometimes there's no other way to get where you want to go.
In this case the pipe is a 1911 Peterson #1 (quite scarce, actually... Pete's top grade) that had, of course, a P-lip. But for both smoking reasons and preservation reasons, the owner wanted a swappable fishtail copy. Made from acrylic.
Not as simple as it sounds. One of the secrets of Pete's high production numbers a century ago was by not going down the "cut to fit" road, but by perfecting their molding tech to where their complicated-shape stems were useable straight from the mold.
The resulting stems could be counted on to have the spot-on diameter and taper to fit to an EXACT depth in the shank/tapered mortise. (too deep and the airway hole would be covered; too shallow and the stem attachment reliability would be iffy)
Dimensionally copying one of their molded stems by hand is a bit of a job, though, for technical reasons. Doubleplus true when the material you're working with is Mike Butera's proprietary ToughStuff. As a package deal, it landed solidly on my All Time Top Ten PITA list.
All's well that ends well, though. (No worries about the stummel, btw. It will get some attention before the project is finished)
