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I have several pipes that have rather large flaws in them. They are not so deep as to bother the smoking, but they are too large to do anything with.

I came up with the following idea. It is a work in progress and I would like some inputs before i go any further with it.




Not sure if i want to leave it as is, go deeper with the battering, or maybe sandblast it. Thoughts?

The twine looks sloppy. How about a little... leather.

kbadkar wrote:The twine looks sloppy. How about a little... leather.

kbadkar wrote:The twine looks sloppy. How about a little... leather.

Leather cord or waxed string - tidier job.

Drill 'em out and glue in taxidermy eyes. THERE'S a conversation starter.

Jack

JHowell wrote:Drill 'em out and glue in taxidermy eyes. THERE'S a conversation starter.

Jack

And sell the pipe to Hollywood sci-fi movie makers for 1000 bucks!

Waxed twine or leather. Yep. In fact, to do a neat job of this, which is possible and rather sharp, there is a technique called "whipping" (do NOT google "leather whipping"!) which allows a tight wrap and shows absolutely not string ends - they tuck under the wraps.

All this talk of leather and whipping is making me hot.

Rad

Rad, I don't care what you say, running "leather whipping" through Google does NOT constitute "research".

The other thing you need to do, T3, to make this look decent, is cut/file a slot where the twine is going to sit. If you can get it so that the twine surface is flush with the rest of the pipe, it will look a lot less like a wounded soldier (Egyptian Mummy, gardening accident, you choose the joke) and a lot more like a dressed up pipe.

Sasquatch wrote:The other thing you need to do, T3, to make this look decent, is cut/file a slot where the twine is going to sit. If you can get it so that the twine surface is flush with the rest of the pipe, it will look a lot less like a wounded soldier (Egyptian Mummy, gardening accident, you choose the joke) and a lot more like a dressed up pipe.

It doesn't matter how you do it, twine is *NOT* going to "dress up" a pipe.

Rad

RadDavis wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:The other thing you need to do, T3, to make this look decent, is cut/file a slot where the twine is going to sit. If you can get it so that the twine surface is flush with the rest of the pipe, it will look a lot less like a wounded soldier (Egyptian Mummy, gardening accident, you choose the joke) and a lot more like a dressed up pipe.

It doesn't matter how you do it, twine is *NOT* going to "dress up" a pipe.

Rad

If it's hemp, you might be able to sell to a "Head Shop"

RadDavis wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:The other thing you need to do, T3, to make this look decent, is cut/file a slot where the twine is going to sit. If you can get it so that the twine surface is flush with the rest of the pipe, it will look a lot less like a wounded soldier (Egyptian Mummy, gardening accident, you choose the joke) and a lot more like a dressed up pipe.

It doesn't matter how you do it, twine is *NOT* going to "dress up" a pipe.

Rad

What if it were woven in a tight, complex macrame that covered the entire pipe? Eh? Eh? The OP, for the record, said nothing about "dressing up," he just wanted to cover the flaws. The twine *is* non-slip. In that spirit, how about some other ideas?

Plasti-Kote tool handle dip. Band-Aids. Thick coat of epoxy and roll it in aquarium gravel -- comes in all colors!

Damn, probably should have kept that last one for myself.

Jack

No, no, no!
Six months or so ago, a guy emailed me about my pipemaking, telling me that he also makes and would like to meet. Well, a guy making pipes in SA is quite rare, and I was really, really interested. That was, until he came around one Saturday, and showed me a pipe with a leather thong around the stem/shank joint!
Well, at least I learned my lesson!

I saw a guy fill a flaw with silver once. Looked pretty darn cool.

Rad, your jealousy is obvious, and unbecoming.

Try to be more like Jack - that aquarium gravel idea is a license to print money. Maybe we should be talking to Stanwell about a new series????

Jody's wife Laurie made him a lovely pipe. It is covered in yellow and purple "floam." One hell of an insulator and lovely too. As far as I know, the $4 pipe underneath is flawless . . . and SEXY!

TJ

I actually think my flaws are sexy, like Marilyn's mole. I don't understand the obsession with hiding them.

On one of my favorite pipes, I went so far as to exploit a gnarly gash.

FLOAM! Why didn't I think of that?

Here is the finished pipe.

Thanks for all the ideas. Will try some of them on other pipes that I don't want to have the overly-distressed look.