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I was shooting for another classic billiard on this one. It probably should have been rusticated, but I wanted to practice contrast staining some more. Feel free to tear it apart—I want to get better at this!

Okay, first of all for only number 2 that is friggin incredible! You've avoided tons of rookie mistakes and made a pipe that looks better than many factory made pipes I've seen. You should be very proud of yourself.

Okay now the nitpicky stuff, and when I say nitpicky I really mean it.

Look a the bottom view and notice how the shank isn't as well defined from the bowl as it should be. To me this is one of the hardest parts of shaping to get right. Your shank looks slightly wider at the stem shank junction. Not by much, but just enough to notice. If anything your stem should be either the exact same diameter to the bowl or very slightly taper toward the bowl. Finally, it's obvious you have some talent so for the love of all that's holy ditch those prefab stems and start cutting your own.

Very, very good job.

VERY well done for your second pipe. In facct, well done all around.
I am not the expert, so take what the big boys say more seriously than what I say.
However,
I will second ditching the prefab stems if this is something you plan to do for a while.
I do think the shank is too small in diameter or the bowl is too chubby...
if the bowl were a hair taller and the shank a skosh thicker this baby would sing!

One more note- take a bit more off at the bottom of the bowl, so the bottom line flows straight into the stem- as is it has a very un-billiardly sag.

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the comments.

I am looking forward to making my own stems as well as drilling my own chambers, but I need a good drill press first. A lathe is unfortunately going to be out of my price range (and storage space!) for a few more years, I think. As soon as I can find something on craigslist I'll be off to the races.

I feel ya on the need for a drill press Drew.

I am working on my 2nd pipe as well and here's hoping it turns out as well as this one did, nice work.

I have no critiques. This pipe freaking rocks the house! Excellent second pipe. I'm just a dumb country boy but I'd smoke that pipe in public in a Birmingham minute!

That's pretty decent for a second for sure. Since you were shooting for a billiard I will offer critique as if it were supposed to be. That being said, what you have there is a pot. The bowl height is too short for a billiard. It looks like you were chasing that flaw by the rim. I've been there several times myself. The balance of the pipe overall is off. The length of the top of the shank should equal the length of the top of the shank to the rim of the bowl. Your shank is long although it wouldn't be so much if the height of your bowl were right. The length of the stem should be equal to the length of the end of the bowl to the shank. It's hard to tell for sure if the stem length is off with the other proportions being off. I tend to think that if the bowl height was right the shank would still be a tad long which would leave the stem a touch long too. I realize you don't have much play with premolded stems so there's not a whole lot you could do about the stem length. As it is, the length of the stem appears pretty cose to the length of the stummel. As already mentioned, the heel of your bowl dips down below the line of your shank.

wdteipen wrote:That being said, what you have there is a pot. The bowl height is too short for a billiard.

I agree with Wayne. I'd say this is somewhere between a billiard and a pot. All of mine are lost in that ambiguous territory as well

Yeti mentioned the line on the bottom as well, and this is really important. Make sure that line is both straight as an arrow and perpendicular to the face of the shank.

wdteipen wrote:The balance of the pipe overall is off. The length of the top of the shank should equal the length of the top of the shank to the rim of the bowl. Your shank is long although it wouldn't be so much if the height of your bowl were right. The length of the stem should be equal to the length of the end of the bowl to the shank.

That is extremely helpful; thank you! I've been looking at at lot of billiards and trying to eyeball the dimensions, but having a good rule of thumb or two like this really helps clarify things for me. Is this generally true of bent billiards as well? i.e. length of the top of the shank = length of the top of the shank to the rim of the bowl?

Thanks again for the comments, everyone.