I'm a pipe making noob still - I've made a couple pipes from cherrywood blocks and for personal use they are great, look ok and smoke real well. My biggest challenges are in drilling (I am using only a hand drill, hand files and sandpaper until I get more tools), alignment and angles etc. I also need more practice in the transition from the shank to the stem. I'm SLOWLY getting better at that, but it's still not perfectly smooth.
This is a poker I sold to a neighbor (not a pipe smoker, but wants to get one for casual use). It has a 'butt' on it like a cherrywood (I love cherrywood shapes, how they drop below the shank a bit) and was rusticated with my hand drill.
Apologies for my horrible photography (edit: I reduced the image sizes so they aren't so out of control) :/
And next to the Chacom I use as a sort of benchmark for all my pipes:
