the shape of a billiard pipe

[Artemisius]

Can you explain in depth how you shape a billiard pipe? I don't have a lathe, so if you want to help me, try to explain the procedure for people who only have saws, files and rasps. Thank you

[seamonster]

Step 1. Get a lathe...

[Artemisius]

...

[Artemisius]

very useful, thank you

[seamonster]

Well, I was only being partly snarky. You will find it very difficult to shape a proper billiard without a lathe.
Here is a great video Walt made a few years back. It does use a lathe, but gives you the fundamentals of the shape. Instead of making the moves on the lathe, make the same moves with your files.....
https://youtu.be/83UEf1g2xuU

We'll see if anyone else jumps in here with wisdom around shaping a billiard without a lathe.

[Artemisius]

thank you, this time for real right now i don't have enough money to buy a lathe, so i will try by hand

[LatakiaLover]

ALL methods of pipe making are 100% subtractive, only the tools used to remove material varies.

Meaning, making a classic shape by hand is entirely possible, it just takes longer.

The best advice I can give is to "evenly and constantly shrink" the stummel as opposed to cut the front line to a near-finished dimension, then the rear line, etc.

If you don't have a heavy-cut French wheel I'd highly recommend it. Much less expensive, bulky, and so forth than a lathe, and arguably more useful.

[JMG]

thank you, this time for real right now i don't have enough money to buy a lathe, so i will try by hand

In this case a firm grip, and decent rasp, along with patience and a lack of fear of scraped knuckles will be at least one way to go at it.

[Sasquatch]

Artemesius, you are getting slightly facetious answers here because the question is too broad. There's an old saying here: How do you catch a sparrow? Easy, just shake a little salt on their tail.

If you know how, you can, and if you don't know how, being told how isn't going to help a lot.

We don't know what tools you have, how much shop experience you have, nothing. And to boot, we all have pipe making setups with all kinds of machinery, so even if you don't have a lathe, it's probably not too much help for you to be told to do as much as you can on the 2" x 72" belt because I doubt very much you have one. Bandsaw, cut as much extra off as you can. No bandsaw, well, do it by hand.

The answer is "look at a billiard, and make your pipe look like that". Use files and swear a lot.

More helpful is that you want to aim at the billiard specs which have been laid out on this board many times - height of the bowl from the shank should roughly = the length of the shank from the bowl, and roughly, the stem should be the same length as the stummel. Start there, and see what happens.

[caskwith]

It sounds like an asshole answer to say "remove all the wood you can until it's billiard shaped, and then stop" but that really is essentially it. There is no magic formula or set of instructions like you might get for baking a cake. You have to look at a pipe (or have a shape in your minds eye) and then just keep removing wood until that shape is in your hands. The tools you use don't really matter, you can shape a pipe entirely with files and sandpaper, all the other tools we use are just there to make it faster and easier.

[DocAitch]

This pipe was made with no lathe work on the stummel, but it was perhaps the 30th pipe I made.
The answers that you got above were all corrrect.
You make a billiard by taking away the wood that is not a billiard. How you get there depends on your tools and your vision. There is no packet of instructions and the most complete instructions will still leave you with problems to solve.
You cannot get there in one step or one pipe.
There are some techniques to getting it round and symmetrical with hand tools and sanding wheels, but you develop these as you work.
I’ve worked about 5 years in the modern era ( I made some turds in the 1970s), and I learn new stuff every day.
I also make a billiard family pipe in every group of pipes that I start, and they are still hard work.
DocAitch

[Artemisius]

I knew that the question was broad, but i wanted to see if someone more experienced than me could help, perhaps i was looking for some basic principles on the shape of a billiard. By the way, thank you all for your help

[DocAitch]

It may help to break down the billiard shape into it’s geometric components. This approach is very helpful to me, especially in the transition area.
The billiard is basically two truncated cones joining a portion of a sphere. I have semi facetiously labeled the area where the upper truncated cone of the bowl joins the sphere as “the Tropic of Capricorn” and the point at the bottom of the bowl where the transition ends as the “South Pole”
The sketch looks a bit apple-ish, but you can imagine a taller cone for a more billiard look. Moving the Tropic of Capricorn up or down can give a more Danish or English flare, and putting a bit of curve on the sides of the upper cone moves a bit toward the French.
DocAitch

[DMI]

A method I use to keep the bowl round is to glue a large metal washer to the rim, if you can find the centre on the bottom you can add a second which gives you a guide to create a cylinder, vary the size of top and bottom washer to change to taper on the cylinder. You can then choose whether to go with a poker, billiard, pot etc.

It helps if you can get the washers opened up to the same size as the chambers you are using.

[Artemisius]

thank you DMI, cool IDEA. Since i'm a total noob, can you send a picture of the way in which you glue the washer? Anyway, thank you

[DocAitch]

You can also use a compass to mark your bowl.
I placed a plug in the chamber for the center pin and used a cheap drafting compass.


The advantage of this system over using a template (washer or turned plug) is that you can choose the thickness of the chamber.
DocAitch