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I’ve taken ill with the Billiard fever that’s going ‘round. What do you think of my rough form? I usually leave my shanks too long and I’m making a conscious effort to train my eye for better proportion. I’ll make revisions and post updates based on your feedback.

Fred, I personally believe, that U.S. Americans are unable to do so,

Er, no wait... wrong post.

My feelings on that pipe are that the bowl is too tall for that shank length - it looks a bit off to me, and putting my thumb over the top 1/4" or so of the bowl fixes it. Check out a Peterson 440, for example, for similar relative dimensions... The 440 has a much smaller bowl though... maybe what I am seeing is just that your pipe has a pretty big bowl in general...

The bowl transition looks pretty even to me, but the bowl hangs below the shank (that may of course go away with sanding anyhow, but I find running a file along the bottom forces me to pay attention to that line (or swoop))

Here's a series of pipes I did recently, kind of hunting for a pot or a very rigid billiard. Not that these are archetypes, but you can see, particularly on the 2nd and 3rd pipes down, the relevant dimensions. The third down is a pot proper, with the shank being roughly 1/3 of the bowl height (or maybe more... it's a pretty short, wide little pipe).

The top pipe is more in line with your dimensions, and I find it a bit heavy in terms of bowl width and height to shank length. That shank was capped because the briar was just ripped to shit there. It's a "might have been" so I never bothered to shape it very carefully.



Unlike your pipe, mine have no forward "lean". The are 90 degree sharpies right off the lathe.

Fred, I realise you're using a premolded stem, but one way of overcoming that "premolded look" is to use a premolded that is much bigger than needed for the pipe size. You then have plenty of "meat" that can be removed, making it (almost?) indistinguishable from a handcut stem.

It's possible that the bowl is a tad too tall, but it could be the camera was too close to the pipe. Back off a bit and use the zoom to get both the rim and the button horizontal in the picture.

Took 3/16" off the top of the bowl. Now it looks more Pot-ish than Billiard-ish to me.

FredS wrote:Took 3/16" off the top of the bowl. Now it looks more Pot-ish than Billiard-ish to me.

I think it looks quite like a Big Ben I bought listed as a Billiard. So in that I would assume it is a Billiard even if a little squater than the average. I'm not quite sure what the average is but I do think it can pass as a billiard.

~Aaron

The front of the bowl (facing the smoker) is too straight, then curves the wrong direction (toward the smoker). I think it should have a curve that is closer to the other side of the bowl, and come back toward the tobacco chamber.

The top of the shank has perhaps a bit too much taper (but that is probably just me).

The shank still seems a tad short compared to the height of the bowl. If it seems more pot-like, then a slightly smaller diameter bowl would fix that (if you can still maintain a reasonable wall thickness).

Just above the chin, the bowl changes direction abruptly and the rest above that is a straight line to the rim.

I see the problem as the block selected. I think it had height and no length or it could be a problem was encountered with the stem and it is a save.

I agree with others regarding he taper and length on the shank but I think that the profile is another that can be acceptable for a billiard. It lacks the signature curve but I have seen many that also are basically straight and slightly tapering to the rim with very, very little curve. If that were the intended profile the front needs to taper in some.