Pine Orca Pipe, Far from good, an early test

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

First I should say this pipe was made with 3 tools a Master Mechanic Rasp/file/Chisel 3/4inch, 100 grit sand paper, and a yankee with a 3/4" bore and a 1/8 drill bit. I wanted to make pipes so I made the few tools I had work. I found a block of pine and I went to work. Even with what I had I could have done better, but I was so excited to finish it. The stem hole might have been the hardest part, I drilled the original hole and worked the bit around to make it bigger and then sanded the inside till it fit over an old stem I had laying around. Of course I know I have a very long way to go.

Now the shape itself I have been told by one person that it is a block. I had a thought with this though and I wanted a large distended belly, like the pipe was pregnant, then I wanted the bowl to stem area to have a curve upwards. The thought was on a few things, one I mild optical illusion which didn't work as intended, the second was for grip, which didn't work entirely either. I share it even though I must say after looking at it in depth I'm a bit embaressed. Oh the stain was a few sample packs offered at my true value store.







Any thoughts you have would be great. I do know it stinks, and since then I've gotten better tools. I got two projects one is petrified wood, and the other is pine. I have some Briar in the works for April. I also wish I had a higher quality camera, all in due time.

~Aaron

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

By the way I really don't mind critiques. Harsh is okay, but I hope it is taken into accord the limited resources I had at hand to make it. Other than that blast it. I do wonder what is thought about the shape. It isn't common thats for sure. But is it to blocky? Would you attempt a shape like this? I'm all ears.

[RadDavis]

HI Aaron,

I think you may be submitting your work for critique a bit too soon.

I mean no offense by this (we all made a first pipe), but your request for critique and advice on this pipe is the equivalent of a guy drawing a stick figure and asking some professional portrait artists what he needs to do to improve it.

There's just not enough to work with. I hope you can understand what I'm talking about here.

Go make more pipes and try to get them to look more like pipes. With stems.

And yes, the shape is *very* blocky.

Rad

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

Rad,

Thanks you gave me a good laugh, which made my day. Maybe one day with lots of hard work maybe I'll be somewhat decent at pipe making. In the meantime I'll just have to look up to the Rembrandts like yourself and gleen what knowledge I can. Thanks Rad.

~Aaron

[Josephine]

Doesn't look like a bad start to me
All creative work gets easier with pratice.

And regarding the "a guy drawing a stick figure and asking some professional portrait artists what he needs to do to improve it," you have no idea how often that actually happens. People who draw stick firgures and ask for advice, often aren't aware that the drawing isn't more than just that, because what ends up on paper is a bit different to what we imagined, no matter how talented an artist one may be. Only after some time it's easier to see the work for what it is, rather than what we imagined it should be.

I can't count the times I've drawn something and looked at it a week later and thought "What? I drew THAT??" O_o

And to the guys asking how to improve stick figures, I usually say to look at how people actually look like. So I guess that works for pipes to, just look at lots and lots of pictures of all kinds of pipes and keep trying^^
Well, I say that, but I wouldn't really know, I've only ever made -one- pipe :p

[Frank]

HI Aaron,

I think you may be submitting your work for critique a bit too soon.

I mean no offense by this (we all made a first pipe), but your request for critique and advice on this pipe is the equivalent of a guy drawing a stick figure and asking some professional portrait artists what he needs to do to improve it.

There's just not enough to work with. I hope you can understand what I'm talking about here.

Go make more pipes and try to get them to look more like pipes. With stems.

And yes, the shape is *very* blocky.

Rad

Those were pretty much my thoughts, I just couldn't figure out how to put it without "crushing" your spirit.

Briar is expensive, so keep practicing with cheap, throwaway wood until you feel confident to tackle a briar pipe. Practice the "easier" classic shapes, pretty much all of them are here http://www.aspipes.org/shapes/shapes.html , before you try the exotic freehand shapes.

Keep an eye on the Gallery section and pay close attention to the critiques of the experienced (that would not be me) pipemakers. You will learn a tremendous amount from that alone.

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

[quote="Frank"]

Those were pretty much my thoughts, I just couldn't figure out how to put it without "crushing" your spirit.

of the experienced (that would not be me) pipemakers.

[/quote="Frank"]

First thanks for trying not to crush my spirit, I've had two pieces in the works that I messed up bad, the first while drilling the shank the bit went up threw the shank. The second was near complete but I sanded through the head. Left a nice little window into the bowl. That's more likely to crush my spirit, I imediatly went back to work though, I will learn how to do this, even if it takes a life time. I'll be playing with Briar in April however.

Secondly you said your not experianced I've seen a few of your works in the Gallery, decent looking stuff. I've quite liked some of the stuff you've made. Your definatly experianced I think maybe not expert yet, but your getting there, I think. I'm on the bottom rung, so everyone pretty much is above me and therefore expert. So I'm looking up to like everyone on here. Thanks Frank for being easy on me.

~Aaron

[Zeeborn]

The one thing that I would add is, if you don’t want to use brier right away then at least use a hard wood of some kind. Pine is so soft it’s going to be hard to get any kind of lasting finnish on it. Not to mention the taste when smoked. Also soft wood carves different than hard woods and so if you get a bunch of practice working with soft wood its not going to help as much when you finally go to brier.
The only use for soft woods such as pine that I can think of would be if you wanted to make a three dimensional "sketch" or model of a design your trying to work out.
Just keep at it, and good luck with the next one!
-Nate

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

Doesn't look like a bad start to me
All creative work gets easier with pratice.

And regarding the "a guy drawing a stick figure and asking some professional portrait artists what he needs to do to improve it," you have no idea how often that actually happens. People who draw stick firgures and ask for advice, often aren't aware that the drawing isn't more than just that, because what ends up on paper is a bit different to what we imagined, no matter how talented an artist one may be. Only after some time it's easier to see the work for what it is, rather than what we imagined it should be.

I can't count the times I've drawn something and looked at it a week later and thought "What? I drew THAT??" O_o

And to the guys asking how to improve stick figures, I usually say to look at how people actually look like. So I guess that works for pipes to, just look at lots and lots of pictures of all kinds of pipes and keep trying^^
Well, I say that, but I wouldn't really know, I've only ever made -one- pipe :p

Thanks, I've had many of those moments painting, one day I'll say that looks perfect, the next day I'll look at it, and something sticks out like a sore thumb and then I'm embaressed I painted it. Other times though I've painted something, and near ready to trash it when someone sees it and says Wow that is fantastic. Then I look at it, and what I thought was wrong isn't so wrong.

I know this Orca pipe was wrong, the sanding didn't get all the uneven sections out, I thought it looked a little blocky but however with a stem on it, it looks a lot better, still blocky though, I'll have to tinker with the idea some more to give it better shape. Someone had to do that originally to get the Volcano Shape, or like some pipe makers I think Chris Morgan has one called the Ice Skate, quite neat to, and then Zenovi has one that looks like a bowl sitting on a leaf or a sled. Neat work. Thanks for replying on this.

~Aaron

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

The one thing that I would add is, if you don’t want to use brier right away then at least use a hard wood of some kind. Pine is so soft it’s going to be hard to get any kind of lasting finnish on it. Not to mention the taste when smoked. Also soft wood carves different than hard woods and so if you get a bunch of practice working with soft wood its not going to help as much when you finally go to brier.
The only use for soft woods such as pine that I can think of would be if you wanted to make a three dimensional "sketch" or model of a design your trying to work out.
Just keep at it, and good luck with the next one!
-Nate

Thanks, I'm kind of going all over the board on the hardness of woods, I'm working on a piece of Petrified Wood type unknown but not Morta, and right now on a piece of pine. I have some Cherry Wood Lined up.

As for smoking the pipes I'm making out of pine, I don't plan to, I'd beafraid of it going up like a Christmas Tree. Also I don't have any proper stains yet, so the stain might just go up to, I have it set up to get some denatured alcohol stains in April. Take care.

~Aaron

[KurtHuhn]

Quite frankly, some very good woods for pipes are walnut, ash, maple, and cherry (along with all fruitwoods). These woods are hardwoods and can help you along the way when working with briar - and to boot, they're excellent to smoke from. Not to mention available in the states as a sustainably harvested wood. I have a couple cherry pipes that get the bejeezus smoked out of them, and then the maple pipes from hardware store "hobby wood".

I just wish there was a real market for pipes from this wood - or that someone would enlighten me on how to reach the market. Pipes from "alternative" woods are excellent smokers once you learn to work with the wood.

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

Thank Kurt

I'll remember those suggestions. Around my area Cherry Wood, and a few other fruit woods are easy to get, So many people out in my area are fruit farmers. As for a market for them I am not all to sure, I've heard of people selling some of them, and I know Kirk Bosi at http://www.Bosipipes.com has a section for Cherry wood, even though he doesn't currently have any for sale.

~Aaron

[Frank]

I just wish there was a real market for pipes from this wood - or that someone would enlighten me on how to reach the market. Pipes from "alternative" woods are excellent smokers once you learn to work with the wood.

Unfortunately, many pipe smokers/collectors can be really bloody-minded when it comes to briar versus all-else.

This pipemaker, http://www.eliesfreehandpipes.com/ , had just such a problem, as he revealed to me during our email correspondence. One or more of the European pipe smokers/collectors forums (primarily the French speaking ones) were, figuratively speaking, tearing his creations to shreds each time he posted a new pipe, primarily because he used woods other than briar. You will notice the remarks he makes in the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of his home page. That is as a consequence of what I mentioned above. What a bunch of sodding creeps!

[AaronWhitehouse0077]

It is ashame that some pipe smokers don't give other materials a try to frequently, other than Corn cob. However corncobs are a bit of a tradition thing I guess, I have my Great-Grandfathers Corncob which has a hole burnt in the bottom but I won't part with it since it was his and is circa 1860 or 1870 somewhere in there. I like the way Osage looks for one.

[alan]

I have a nice little cherry pipe that is one of my favorites. I had to be a little more gentle breaking it in, but once I did it became a very pleasant little smoker.