First reject of 2012

[Ocelot55]

Well, gentlemen, just so no one thinks I just comment and don't make pipes here is a reject I finished the other day. The stem totally comes off the stummel at an angle. I did a pretty good job camouflaging it, but I still didn't sign it. I might keep this one for myself. I'm too embarrassed to sell it. I would love to hear any critique, just keep in mind that it's not my best work.

[bornagainbriar]

Did you do the banding yourself?

[Ocelot55]

Did you do the banding yourself?

Sure did. It wasn't hard at all. I just heated up the band with a cigar torch and used the PME banding tool to push it onto the shank. Very simple, even a sasquatsch could do it. I didn't use any epoxy so I'm curious to see how this one wears.

[Sasquatch]

Damn that looks a lot like a Peterson 69!

I bet the band is fine.... I epoxy 'em cuz I don't have a banding tool.

[jdkearns]

Damn nice looking pipe! So was the mortise drilled at a slight angle and therefore the tenon/stem is not angled? Can't tell from the photos what was wrong. It looks a lot like a Peterson I wanted for Christmas, except you're missing the "complete" dye job!

What type of band is it?

[HumblePipe]

Thats a real nice looking reject you've got there! Good work.

[Ocelot55]

Well here is a rough diagram of the problem:



I'm pretty sure this sort of thing can be fixed with a lot of patience, but it seemed that every time I tried to take some sandpaper and work on the face of the stem or the shank I made things worse. Fortunately the band covered a lot of the problem. Anyone have experience solving this problem in the past?

I wound up selling this pipe a couple days ago. The gentleman who bought it really liked the shape even after I explained to him all that was wrong with it. Anyway he got what I believe will be a good smoking pipe for $30. I'm starting to get really hyper-critical of my work.