Very Nice pipe David! I like the shape a lot. The stem looks excellent.
Well, to each his own... I actually like the rustification on the shank better than that on the bowl. To me that looks a little more natural. I like rustification where I can't detect the individual tooling cuts. For me that means it needs to be pretty thouroughly overlaped. I like the way the right side of the bowl looks (in the bottom pitcutre) more than the left side. My guess is I would really like this rustification if the cuts just overlaped more.
The inserts are pretty, but are they perhaps just a bit distracting? I notice this in my pipes too, which almost all have inserts. Looking more cloesly I think my eye wants to see Cumberland where the Ebonite is, in order to tie the stummel side in with the rest of your stem. The walnut section on the stem end is a bit thicker than the one on the stummel end. I think that may also constribute to my distraction, or maybe I'm just easily distracted? :dunno:
In the picture from the top it does look like there is a slight buldge at the saddle on the left side (bottom side in this picture). Is that what you checked with the straight edge? I have a heck of a time with that area for some reason. Sometimes it seems like it's there, but the photos also emphisis more than I detect in the original. Most often I see it in the picture first, and then when looking at the pipe find that it really is there.
Somtimes I'm convinced it's just the angle of the shot...
Having said all that, I really love the pipe David, very nice work, and I think your rustification technique shows definite promise.
