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So last night I just put the final touches on a big free hand I have been working on. I put the stem in the shank and noticed a small crack at the end of the shank. No big deal, the shank was plenty long enough so I cut a 1/4" off. That's when I noticed I had shaped to close to the air hole on the bottom of the shank.

I put the stem in agian and my worst nightmare happened. The whole bottom side of the shank cracked all the way to the bowl. Now at this point I'm using really bad words, throwing things ect. ect. The bowl shape is kinda acornish, so I was thinking if I counter sink the draft whole a bit, I can epoxy a piece of deer antler in it and go from there. Anyone ever done this, or have any idea's?

That is exactly how many shank extensions begin, with a lot of bad words.

JHowell wrote:That is exactly how many shank extensions begin, with a lot of bad words.

Or - if the shape would take a bamboo shank you could always use that. I find it's rare that I like a shape where the whole shank is an extension (except bamboo). But that's purely subjective, obviously...

Yep........... Bamboo is good for this type of repair, least from what I came up with on this one.

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If it's really close to the bowl, you might want to use a short length of stainless tubing to reinforce the extension joint at the bowl. The Oversized Ostrogoth can tell you more about using SS tubing.

Actually, a pipe I made yesterday uses SS tubing to help support the shank. If you want to know more, just shout.