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I've been absolutely balls to the wall here for the last couple months, and my shop time has been severely restricted as a result. Fortunately, I managed to score a day off to go with the already long weekend, and found myself in the shop every day this weekend.

This gem came about because of a prior accident. I knocked the shank of this one off when I wasn't paying attention to the lathe and swung a gouge in the wrong direction. I set it aside and forgot about it for about a year. As luck would have it, I found it again going through the drawers in the workshop looking for something else. I decided to give it a bamboo shank since I haven't done squat with bamboo in ages, and then sandblast the entire thing.

I forget who first showed off a sandblasted bamboo shank, but I recall very clearly that Love recently showed one. I figured, heck, why not, and went to town. I am *very* pleased with how this one turned out.

On to the pics...

Nice pipe Kurt.

why the unstained part?

Nicely done, Kurt!

nepenthes wrote:why the unstained part?

That's where the stamp is, and that area was left unblasted. It's not actually unstained, it's just that it's less stained than the sandblasted portion - a side effect of the bamboo skin not taking stain anywhere near as well as the area that's been beaten to smithereens.

If it was for sale, I would have worked a little more on blending the two together, but this was an experiment in finishing technique, and I kind of like the contrast.

Very interesting pipe.

Thanks! It smokes like dream, too. I filled it full of Mississippi Mud and took the daily trek from Boston. It tasted fine, but I have a suspicion this pipe is more suited to 1792 (Cobb Flake). Idon't know why I think that, it just seemed to be asking for that tobacco.

Great looking pipe. I think the apple and prince shapes look very nice with long bamboo shanks.