Bent Dublin With My First Hand Made Acrylic Stem

[DocAitch]

George, We may have to organize a commando raid to remove that program from your computer, and perhaps beat you about the head and shoulders with that bear paw.
DocAitch

[LatakiaLover]

Yer just jealous that YOU don't have it, that's all. Ain't foolin' me.

As for the bear paw, good luck with that. Anyone who's met me face-to-face knows that I'm a certified ninja-class blackbelt super-duper badass, who could be the UFC heavyweight world champion any time I felt like it.

This is a selfie I took just now. Sorry there nothing for scale, but I'm 6'10" and 415 lbs.

[Sasquatch]

LOL I don't know HOW I missed that shit!

Back to sanding!

[Sasquatch]

Luckily I can take blurry pictures and hide my sins.

[shikano53]

[quote="Sasquatch"]Sand REALLY thoroughly at like 220-240. Then 320, then stain, then sand it back and look for the wounds, sand them out, 220 and 320, then sand the whole thing at 400 and stain again, you want to pay really close attention to moving through the grits and doing a good job in the tough areas - shank bowl transition etc.

Once you have a pipe that is stained up and sanded back and it doesn't look like shit, you can either top stain or just move on to a sealing coat.

This is why factory pipes are done with colored topcoats so often - just fire that dark red lacquer on there and no one can see all the miniscule sanding marks.

I often wipe the pipe right after I stain too, with a super thin shellac, like a sealer - evens out the stain and lets me see what the grain is doing.


Thanks I will be incorporating this into my process as well.

Sasquatch, one question: I generally wipe my coat of stain with a paper towel while it is still wet. When do you apply the shellac? After the stain has dried and you've sanded it back down, or immediately after the stain has been applied? I understand you to mean immediately after you have applied the stain.

[Sasquatch]

I will wipe a pipe with a really thin coat of shellac on a rag right after staining, as part of the process of getting the stain to be fairly even. Then I'll let that mess dry, probably sand for effect, essentially taking all the finish off the surface, leaving whatever color behind. Then I'll put a coat of slightly thicker shellac on, like a 1 pound cut maybe, I don't even know. Let that dry, then polish that.

[JMG]

This may be my favorite post ever on this site.