Want to show you work to the world? Want a place to post photos of your work and solicit the opinions of those that have gone before you? Post your work here.
Here are some picture of my 3rd pipe, but the 1st one that I think is worthy of posting.
It is not intended to be a Calabash, only inspired by the general design.
I am finding that each pipe I make offers a significant learning experience as well as a new set of design opportunities (if you know what I mean... ).
I appreciate any feedback you are willing to give.
Cool pipe. Nothing wrong with this for a number 3. I think the shank is too heavy in comparison to the bowl. If you're going to have a "chin" I'd try to make it appear more intentional. You want all of your lines to be clear and distinct - shank /bowl union could be cleaned up as well as the chin. Hope that's clear...
The bottom of the bowl shouldn't dip below the main line of the shank, as has been noted, and I agree that the whole thing is rather long for the little height that the bowl has. The shank also starts to flare out about 1/2" from the bowl, and it ordinarily shouldn't do this on a "classic" shape.
But your finish is good, your joint between the shank and stem is not bad, and it is quite obviously a pipe. So you've got the basic elements of drilling, shaping and finishing under your belt, and now it's a matter of dialing in proportions and perfecting everything.
Interesting take on the Calabash. I know (as you mentioned) that it's just inspired by the Calabash style but I would love to see a version of this with the improvement suggestions that Sas and the boys already mentioned (a straight bottom and maybe a taller bowl). Thanks for sharing your work and would love to see numbers 1 & 2 as it seems you've already acquired some skills.
“When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself”
― Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The devil is the details for sure, but the character of the pipe is also there - in this example, the unusual rim detail gives it an very Victorian sort of feel. Anyone asked about how old that pipe is would guess "150 years?" or something. That's quite cool.
I think this is really good, but it seems like you need to sketch your design more thoroughly on the briar. The pipe seems like it froze halfway becoming a calabash from a bulldog, like it doesnt know what it is; most likely because you didnt as you made it
I agree that the pipe is stuck half way between a calabash and a bulldog.
I did sketch the pipe on the Briar before starting, but as I cut the tobacco chamber I found a terrible inclusion. So, I had to keep cutting until it was gone. The result was a pipe with a squat bowl and, alas, I had already formed the shank.
I gave you this whole explanation as a lead in to this question:
Most of my wood working experience is in making bowls, lidded boxes, and other various and sundry turnings. Invariably in the process of making these pieces either mistakes happen or the wood reveals to you something unexpected and you are faced with a "design opportunity" that can sometimes even enhance the piece. Since Briar is prone to these unexpected joys how does a competent pipe maker deal with them? Is the whole piece scrapped because removing the flaw would compromise the design, or is the design changed mid-stream to yield a pipe that has an unplanned form?
Every once in awhile, you just throw a block away. Some awful imperfection shows up and it just wrecks the pipe and that's that. This ranges from finding big cracks in the bowl to little fissures through the airway or an unlucky deficiency at the mortise...and you have a "keeper" at best or firewood at worst. This will happen in 1/3 blocks if you have a poor supplier and maybe 1 in 20 or 1 in 40 if you have a good supply.
Small flaws may change a design - make a tall pipe short or a small pipe big, or take a long shanked pipe and make it a short one... and you do that and move on. If you want to take a certain design and just "make it happen" you will have to get a little lucky with the block. Ordinarily the briar will have a say in the final design. In a hundred or so pipes I've done.... I bet maybe 10 or so was I able to just get exactly what I wanted and not have any defects that had to be worked around. I've had probably 6 blocks that would have taken any pipe - blocks that were utterly without interior flaw.
So as a hobby guy, when you only have 2 blocks of briar, you approach one thinking "This one's a bulldog 2" tall." and if it doesn't work out that way it's sort of heartbreaking not to be able to get that particular pipe from that particular block, but you just gotta roll with it. Likewise, when you got 50 pieces of briar on a shelf and you cut into one and it looks ugly, you just grab a different one.
And if you take that to heart, I wonder what your bowl would look like with a pencil thin (well, not quite, but you get the point) shank and stem. Probably very interesting.
).
