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I ended up purchasing: Vallorbe 6-0 Crossing Vallorbe 6-1 Pillar Iwasaki 3mm round extra fine Respirator + p100 cartridges (no dust collection system, but I should be working in the garage or outside usually). I'll wait a bit and see if that nut-seating file is imperative. I'll see how these tools w...

Aaaaaaah, this doesn't help with decision-making! Haha, I suppose I will get a smattering/sample platter of tools, then. Thanks you all, I will let you guys know what I decide on.

Alex

Thanks for the feedback Sas and Jeremiah. The relationship between directionality and fineness of the tool makes sense. And yeah, briar IS wood. I somehow keep "forgetting" that and somehow making it an exception to the rule because of how hard it is. Clearly you can tell that my most used...

Hi All! It's been a while, but I am back! Not that any of you really missed me, haha. I was previously working in a theatre scene shop at my college up until recently, and since most of what we built was made out of wood, files and rasps (not very good ones, though) were available. At my new locatio...

Gorgeous pipe, and a lovely tribute to an amazing carver. I've always looked up to his work. He will be missed.

Yeah..... poop. I really need to remember that I'm only halfway done with the battle after I've finalized the shaping, if even that. PATIENCE IN THE FINISH

Thanks for the advice.

Best,
Alex

Hey all, I apologize for posting each and every one of the pipes I've made so far. Admittedly, part of the reason I post is a way to keep track of my progress and a place to write down what I think I did well, what I know I didn't do as well, and of course, to obtain any and all feedback. My process...

Thanks for the advice! I will keep that in mind for the next zulu I make. I'm on the final staining/sanding/shellacing step already :/. I DID remove and smooth out the top of the bowl/shank transition some, but doing a side-by-side comparison of then and now, I probably could have removed even more ...

D'oh! How could I have forgotten! Thanks!

Hey you all, I've been working on a zulu for the past two days and I'm at a point where I think I can begin sanding up in grits. However, as this is a gift for a friend, I really hope to get the shape right. It's not sitting quite flat at the moment so I know I need to even out the bottom of the pip...

That depends on your view of what shaping and family relation is. Your rendition looks daintier, trimmed its waistline, and has a slightly more arcing stem, but in my eyes, they sure look like siblings.

I'm a big fan of the prince shape. Solid work!

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words, Wayne and Bruce. On to the next kit!

Alex

Thanks for the advice Premal! I'll be sure to pay some extra attention to better transitions between the shank and bowl junction. I should also take some photos with better lighting, especially of the bite zone and bit. Fortunately, I have four more kits to go through (and one that was going to be a...

Hey all, This here is my second pipe made in one of my favorite shapes, a bent prince. I stained the pipe at 200 to hunt out deeper scratches, sanded to bare with 320, stained again, sanded down with 400, stained again, then sanded with 600 to my desired contrast. I took the stem to 1000. I also kep...

As a beginner with very similar goals I went with a 1/2hp Enclosed Grizzly motor, the Beall setup, and an arbor from Kurt that I can use to mount normal sanding disks (the Beall won't do that). It's working fantastic in my limited experience. I have a duct in the front I can attach to my Shop-vac, ...

Literary, thanks for the suggestion. I read your post of this idea and then proceeded to see it being used in several videos. I posted the final product (or maybe v0.8?) in the gallery. Off to make another!

-Alex

I like the button very much, as well as the transition between the shank and stem! Two things that I utterly fail at, haha.

-Alex

Thanks for the advice and encouragement! Indeed, the stem has room for much improvement. I'm going to invest in some smaller files/saws to help improve their look. In the meantime, on to my next pipe! I can tell this will be a lot of fun... Also, to answer BrianMadsen, I used 40, 80, 180, a bit of 2...

I recently re-acquired my camera and the first thing I did was take photos of this pipe. Things have been slow recently, as I didn't want to go too far with my next pipe without the hearing some of the excellent critiques and feedback you guys provide. I started working on shaping this pipe sometime...

Nate, that's interesting, I'll keep that technique in mind. I finished my first pipe today, so once I have my camera returned to me, I'll take some photos. One thing's for sure, I'm quite bad at the staining/sanding the stain, haha.

Alex