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.
For this one i tried a "natural" look with only a black base to highlight the grain.
My first three pipes were made from pre-bored blocks so i was a bit limited regarding the shape / size of the stummel / stem. Also the quality of the briar, although i never encountered big flaws was a little bit limited in terms of grain.
Today i received my 4 Jaw self centering Chuck from the UK and now i can start working my blocks from "scratch".
That's a great 3rd pipe. Shaping is good, and polish looks good too. Since you asked for critique I'll tell you the two things that stick out to me.
1. The stem/shank junction isn't quite crisp, meaning, if you get real close it looks like they are two pieces. That's because they are, but where they meet they're supposed to look like one piece. It should almost look like the briar magically turned into ebonite and the flow just kept right on into your stem. Your 3rd picture shows this the best. I bet if you sanded across the shank and stem you'd get a build up of dust right there at the junction, because the ebonite is slightly larger at the junction than the briar. This can happen from not sanding the two together. Sometimes its hard to get perfect because sanding doesn't always remove material from ebonite as fast as it does briar. I have two easy ways to see if this junction is right.
A. If my finger catches at the junction as I move it from shank to stem, then my fit isn't quite right.
B. If material collects in the junction during sanding...it's not quite right either.
2. The stem could use a bit more polishing. When it's done it can look like as shiny as the laquer on a grand piano. That should be your goal IMHO. With the right steps you can achieve this look every time.
Those are both fairly micro type critiques, but I can see you're geting a good understanding of some of the other techniques, and I think it's always nice to have something new to try to perfect for the next pipe.
