Well Here Goes Nothing - My First Egg Attempt

[shikano53]

This is my first attempt at an egg. I rusticated it because the briar wasn't the best for a smooth. I used the Walt Cannoy method with the nails epoxied into a 1" dowel. Think I need to get an old pool ball like he uses and build a new rustication tool out of that. My stamp isn't very good. It's all there and readable, but I missed my target mark for the stamp. That's after drawing a little box and marking the center point with a pencil line.
The stem is vulcanite because I'm still really struggling with button forming on a piece of turned rod.
Thanks all for your comments in advance.

[shikano53]

Hi folks, I'm going to try explaining my thoughts on this egg and how I arrived at what I did.
So, first off I went to Smoking Pipes and looked at a whole swack of eggs by a lot of different artisans. I took a bunch of screen captures, printed those and taped them to my shop wall.
I then started sketching. I sketched about a dozen different shapes that I though might represent the overall genre but I didn't use the shapes I had printed as a copy all.
Once I had made my sketches I modified the ones I thought were usable. I erased, redrew, erased some more and settled on this shape. Bottom line was probably based more on the fact that I liked it and liked the reverse angle on the backside of the bowl. Well, I don't know what else to call it since it slopes outward and away, not inward like on a billiard.
After that I selected a piece of briar and started drawing on the briar. Again, drawing, erasing etc. until I was satisfied.
Anyway, that's what I did and that's the story on that particular pipe.
On wards to the next briar block.

[brownleafbeardsman]

Hey, Shikano.
First off, I think the bowl shape is pretty good, I like the cant that you have put on it.
The main couple things that stand out to me are the lines of the shank/stem. They seem to dip in and out when looking at the pipe from above.
The stem also seems wavy.

Aside from those waves, I think it is a good looking pipe! With those lines held better it would give it a whole new look, I bet.
For the stem waves and dips, someone had linked me to one of George's videos on YouTube, in which he shows how he sands a stem. It really helped me!

[Sasquatch]

Agree with wavy stem, looks like it was bent, then straightened. 4th pic really shows this. Not sure why it's being bent though, the stummel is straight, it's a straight pipe.

Put a file under the length of the stummel, looks like there's some bowl sagging. That bottom line needs to be flat on this kind of pipe.

Things look fairly symmetric and straight, drilling good. I'd hit the edge of the slot with some sandpaper, get rid of that crack/slit on the edge of the slot. That area's really critical because your tongue is super, super sensitive, any little defect there will feel like a stone in your shoe.

[shikano53]

Thanks guys:
blb; I will go back and revisit George's videos again.
Sask, thanks for the comments. I'm working on another right now.
The stem is bent because the gentleman from the pipes magazine forum who approached me about making him one, wanted the stem to have a slight bend in it. I sell them dirt cheap just to cover the cost of my briar etc. and inform the potential client that I'm in no way a carver, just an aspiring carver in training. If they still want a pipe I'll do my best to make them one.
I always tell them to check here, for any comments, and if they decide they don't want the pipe no problem and that I'll put in on my website.
I bent the stem twice. Heating it with the heat gun, first bend, not happy, then trying to fix the way it looked to my eye by heating it and bending it some more trying to take some of the bend out and then like I said, bending it again. I always plunge the stem into an ice cream pail (with the ice cream gone of course) and enough ice and water to cover the stem when I plunge it.
Should a stem be bent only once?

[Sasquatch]

It's more that if you bend it a bunch of times, you have to make sure of what it looks like each time, that you get the old bend out. I often bend a pipe more than once, bend, touch up the shape, bend more or less, touch it up more, then finish it for real.

[shikano53]

Hey thanks Sask, I have one question if I can include it here. Sask, you once mentioned in a post several months ago that's it's real easy to check for laminar flow and that pipe buyers have often come up to your table armed with a flashlight to check for laminar flow.
How do I check to insure the pipe has good laminar flow?
Sask or of course any forum member who can let me know. Thanks folks for all your great input on this.

[Sasquatch]

In the shop, you can draw through a pipe and see if it feels smooth (opposite condition is whistling, literally caused by cavitation), but otherwise, with a straight pipe, you can shine a flashlight in the bowl and look into the stem, and it will show you every little scratch from drilling, filing, cutting, etc.

[shikano53]

Awesome! Thank you!

[shikano53]

I see exactly what you all have mentioned about the wavy stem.
Thank you for pointing that out and also the info on laminar flow. That goes into my checklist and build criteria.

[shikano53]

Is this where I should take material off to correct the bowl sag?