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Tyler (since this is your's) or anyone else that has experience doing this, how do you shape this stem? Lathe? Is it easy to sand down?

I don't think that you could do this stem w/o a lathe. I am sure that you might be able to come close, but you better hope your hands are damn steady and that your eye is keen if you want to try. Really, when it comes to handcutting stems of this sort, you are going to need to use a lathe. There are plenty of handcut stem shapes that can be attempted without one, but this isn't one of them. If you want to do a similar stem (w/o the raised ridge on the stem's base) you could probably manage w/o the lathe. So, you could come up with something comparable, but w/o the precision that a lathe would provide.

Jeff

I assume you two mean a metal lathe? I have neither but a wood one is within my price range... a metal one is not. Maybe if I sold 10 more pipes, but definately not right now.

random wrote:Jeff, you would be surprised what a fellow can do after he spends some time training his hands. Most are not inclined to invest the time either to train the hands or to use them.

Oh, I know that it can be done. I was merely suggesting that you had better have a steady hand and a clear idea of what you are doing if you attempt to make such a stem by hand. Even making one on a lathe is not a simple matter, but working w/o one is much more difficult. Thus, it would be my recommendation that you avoid making such designs until you have the equipment that would allow it to be done with a higher degree of precision. There are plenty of stem designs that could be utilized in place of the one on the Sullyfish, and I would personally recommend that one attempts one of these different ones if one does not have a lathe. But, hey, in the end it is your rod stock and your customer, so do what you need to do.

Jeff

It's lathe work. It could be done easily enough on a metal lathe or a wood lathe though, that doesn't make much difference. It can be lots of fun to hand-turn stem work on a wood lathe.

bscofield wrote:I assume you two mean a metal lathe? I have neither but a wood one is within my price range... a metal one is not. Maybe if I sold 10 more pipes, but definately not right now.

That stem is totally doable on a wood lathe. Far more complex turnings than that are done on wood lathes every day by pro turners.

If you're looking for an excuse to get a lathe, stem turning is a pretty good one. The Jet Mini or the Delta Midi are great lathes to have in your shop. Ever since I bought my Jet, my drill press has gone completely unused - unless I need to drill holes in plate/sheet metal or wood.

Sorry for the delayed reply, I didn't see this thread until now.

As others have already said, I did use a lathe to do this. I used a metal lathe, but that is not the whole story. I used a metal lathe only because that was what the rod was already conveniently chucked into. I only used its "metal features" for the tenon. To make the bead, I used hand chisels just as one would do with a wood lathe.

Tyler

my wife's gonna hate that I get ANOTHER tool (I'll have to expand my workshop cause of it ) but I can't get past the fact that a really classy stem is the PERFECT end to a great pipe. I'll play a little with chucking a stem into my drill press but I don't think that'll cut it for long (I've done it once and it takes a long time).

Thanks fellas...