Half Bent Rhodesian?

[Growley]

I just finished up this Rhodesian...I think it's a Rhodesian. I had to hand cut the rings, because without having some sort of offset cutting tool they were unreachable due to the bend in the shank. (the shank was much more thick when it was on the lathe)

I kind of wonder if this should have been a saddle stem. What are you guy's thoughts? I'll take any critique you care to offer.











Thanks for looking.

Brian.

[Ocelot55]

Dang Brian! That's very sharp! I love the stain and the flow. The one thing I would have done, (IMHO), was take a little more material off at the bowl/shank junction.

How did you hand cut the rings?

If that had a cumberland stem, I would've offered to buy that off you. Great job.

[Nate]

Not bad sir!! One thing I notice is the stem fitment, you have a slight upward curve in the shank and the stem basically sticks straight off of that. I think it interrupts the flow you have going. If you make the stem curve the other direction (in this case downward a bit) it would have a lot more continuity. As Ocelot55 noted, you could have cut a bit more on the lower section (under the rings) to help the face (shank side) of the bowl's appearance. I wish I could coax Sas into doing a stem drawing for you....hint hint. All that said, it's pretty decent pipe, good work. Learn and make more!

[Growley]

Yeah, the stem fit is my biggest frustration with this one. It was a case of having the wrong alignment somehow. I'm not sure how I did it but initially the shank was set up to have a lot more bend. I my have just misjudged it when I put it on the lathe. The shank actually initially rose above the rings. Grrrrr....

I cut the rings with tiny little jewelers saw. Fist I taped what looked like the right ring, then I scored it with a knife, then a tiny file, then once I had a decent trench I used the jewelers saw.

Thanks for the compliments.

[Alden]

Your pipes are coming along really nicely. I hope I can run the learning curve as quick when I get started.
Nice work there!

[Growley]

Nate, I'll save Sas the diagram work. Here's more of what it was "supposed" to look like. Just a few degrees off on the lathe though... oh well next time.



Too bad it's not as easy to change the actual pipe as it is the picture in photo shop

[Nate]

Ha, yeah, if only!! I think you could even bring the bottom of the stem up a touch more to emphasize the curve and make the whole thing more dramatic. Basically thin it out a bit more and make sure the shank end of the stem completely matches the shank angle. More 'S' shaped if that makes sense?

[andrew]

I like the contrast. The red as a hue would look really good on top of the others, you could get that by rubbing the pipe down with DNA after brushing on the red (don't wait until the stain is dry, wipe down while still damp, that allows more of an even application and some mixing with the color below). One thing that tripped me up on this shape was the side profile on the bowl. Matching the front and back, both beneath and above the rings. Beneath the rings would be a bit of a trick on this one, it's all hand work unless your tool has some good reach. The button is looking good, looks like it would hang nicely. I really like the size of the bowl. I've been finding that my best smokes have been coming more consistently from larger bowled pipes, so two thumbs up from me on the bowl size .

Good pipe.

[hawky454]

Wow man, Very well done. You're progressing at a very fast rate. Good job. I think this is my favorite one you've made thus far. You said, you had to hand cut the rings. What did you use to achieve this?

[Growley]

Wow man, Very well done. You're progressing at a very fast rate. Good job. I think this is my favorite one you've made thus far. You said, you had to hand cut the rings. What did you use to achieve this?

Sorry for the late response on this. I basically used some electrical tape to create an "as close to perfect" circle and edge as I could get. Then I took an exacto knife and cut my first line following the tape. Once I had a line cut I tediously cut the line into a sort of trench with a very small file. Then I took a jeweler's saw with a very fine blad an cut it deeper.

This the exact one I have: http://www.pjtss.com/browseproducts/Jew ... rmany.html . There are a lot of good uses for these saws and they're very cheap. I saw a guy cutting pictures into coins once at the mall with one of these and I was so astounded by the detail you could get with such a tiny blade that I had to try it myself.

Anywho...that's how I did it. When you blow the pictures up big you can see they're not perfect, but for a standard eyeball they're not too bad.