Bulldog Nosewarmer

[staffwalker]

[Nick]

Just terrific bud. The taper of the stem bothers me a bit. It seems over done. But otherwise, its gorgeous.

[Charl]

Nice Rhodie! For me there is also something wrong with the stem. I think the lines should be more flowing, and not have bumps etc.
Love the stummel though!

[Alan L]

It's awfully pretty, and I can see what the others see in the stem; it's neither a saddle nor a taper, but sort of in-between. That said, though, I do like it!

Personally, since I am endowed with facial hair in volume similar to your avatar I tend to avoid nosewarmers lest a grand conflagration ensue.

[staffwalker]

Thanks, I understand what you are saying. A short stem such as this presents difficulties. The stem is only two inches long, not a problem, I make many pipes with two inch stems. The problem lies in the one inch diameter of the stem and shank connection. A full saddle would have been easy to do, a taper presents difficulties. The difficulty lies in tapering a dia of one inch to 4-4.5 mm, behind the button, in two inches of length. This I can do if the story ended there. It doesn't, a stem with that much taper would feel horrible when held in the teeth, which would clench a 4-4.5mm button, while the lips would close over a stem the size of a 55 ring cigar. In my opinion, a very uncomfortable combination. What I do to alleviate this is to always assure my stems are 4-4.5mm behind the button and no more than 5-5.5mm 1/2" from the button. This allows teeth and lips to feel comfortable while occupying roughly the same thickness.

As I said, a saddle in this case would have been easy, a taper not so. What you see is my approach to the problem. It's a half-ass saddle/taper. It's neither strictly speaking, a saddle or a taper but a bit of both. How will it fly? I don't know. To me it looks and feels right when I hold it. I took it and the other 11 pipes I have made during the past month to my local pipe club last week. The bulldog was the star of the night as the one most passed around and oohed over. Ask me again after I display at the St Louis show. bob