First Freehand

[UnderShade]

Ah. Well, I think they look cool, and that’s why I made it. Sorry to trouble you gents.

[LatakiaLover]

Ah. Well, I think they look cool, and that’s why I made it. Sorry to trouble you gents.

[sigh]

No matter how subtle, passive aggression will get you nowhere.

Maybe what's missing is your mission statement. Your intent for being here. Do you want to become a truly good pipe maker? Or are you just looking to have a few smokable specimens lying about that you can show to people and say you made?

We can't tell you what direction to travel until we know where you want to be.

[UnderShade]

LL- you’ve got me all wrong, man. My goal is to become the best pipe maker I can be. My goal with this particular pipe was to make a 70’s style freehand. If I succeeded in that, I would like to know, as I value your opinions. If I failed in that, I would also like to know.

[n80]

I'm finding that despite the great amount of information available here, there seems to be a certain amount of Yoda-to-Skywalker or Master Po-to-Grasshopper attitude towards new members and pipe makers that otherwise makes its utility to new pipe makers no more than that of a static document.

It is unfortunate.

I understand that to do anything well it takes time, open minded learning, lots of practice, a thick skin and lots of failure and learning from those failures along the way. I understand you have to 'pay your dues' I understand that it also requires a certain amount of respect and regard for those willing to teach. But I also know that this is true of a lot more pursuits than pipe making and I'm relatively sure that pipe making is no different in regard to other such crafts and art forms at their highest levels. And I also know that disregard for the learner and the apprentice is counterproductive.

The thing that is so striking is that there are forums and websites for countless other crafts, pursuits and art forms that are every much as demanding as pipe making and in many cases more so, that treat 'aspirants' so much better and with so much more respect.

One wonders if there is something inherent in high end pipe makers that makes it different. Or is it just the few who frequent this forum.

Some of you 'old guard' are fond of pointing the beginner at the volumes of information contained here. Well, when you do just that you also see the many posts in which new members and pipe makers are treated rather poorly and almost always with condescension.

And yet there are posts wondering why the activity level is low here.

I think it is great for a few 'old guard' types to have a place to talk shop. And the attitude and condescension found here is sure to keep this forum just that.

[danilo]

What you guys are not getting is that they are helping, you just cant understand what they are saying as you are not used to not having everything given easy.
This was said before, there is not a teacher here been paid and you are asking the best to talk about your freehand pipe. I did the same and after actually reading the other topics on pipes and mistakes I understood why there was lack of comments. It was so shit ( my pipe) as a pipe that it should not even be here. Now my standards are so high that i am a better pipemaker or a pipe buyer that i will post only pipes that i can not judge.

This been said, read more.

Sent from my MI 8 Lite using Tapatalk

[LatakiaLover]

Hm. You were told by several established makers exactly how to make this place work for you, n80. The magic formula. The steps to take and how to take them.

Instead of doing it, though, you'd rather tell us how it's wrong.

Nothing remains to be said, then. Not by me, anyway.

Enjoy your alternate journey.

[UnderShade]

It’s all good guys. No feathers ruffled here. I make pipes because I love it. I wanna get better. Nothing that George or any of you say will put me off. That being said, I’m off to the shop!

[KurtHuhn]

Here's my first attempt at a freehand. Made it for my Father-in-law last father's day. Critiques welcome...

My $.02:

The best "freehands" I've seen, at least in my opinion, have the tobacco chambered centered (or at least the appearance of so) in the top of the bowl. Same goes for the stem mortis. The seeming bulk of material fore of the tobacco chamber, and aft of the stem, creates a visual imbalance - at least to me. It's not horrible, but it could be better balanced.

The stem and shank seem, at least in the photos, to be of ever so slightly different angles. Hard to tell for certain though.

[LatakiaLover]

The stem and shank seem, at least in the photos, to be of ever so slightly different angles.

[UnderShade]

Thanks Kurt and LL, I really appreciate it!

[Sasquatch]

I'll go full Yoda here.

Let's look at a couple freehands, same stamp, different maker I'd bet.

Here's the first:





And the second:





And one is simply.... a nicer pipe than the other. Why? Well, the first pipe shows an organic flow, a touch in the carving that almost makes it look like it's moving. The extra length on the stem, the accentuated curve.. this thing's coming to get you! The grain is dripping down to that plateau crust bottom.... a fascinating experiment in making a pipe into, what, a slug? Or a tree on LSD? I dunno.

Second pipe is just a block of nice wood that someone shaped into a couple of roughly v-shaped appendages. Grain showing is great, it's a great piece of wood, but the carving is utterly without inspiration. Put a stem in it and ship it.

You can SEE this stuff, in a compare and contrast sort of situation. "Ah, of course." But if I just say to you "Your pipe lacks flow" probably it doesn't mean ANYthing to a new carver. So then we gotta talk about flow. Lines, proportion, balance, the golden ratio, Fibonacci's sequence, cross-cultural notions of beauty, aesthetics theory as it applies to 3 dimensional functional art... holy shit man, are you sure you want to talk about flow yet??

Kurt's right. Get the hole in the middle, it looks better usually. Usually. Some of this stuff is "just does". Some of this stuff is "just does in this case" and that's harder to get one's head around.

As a 70s freehand, it's an absolutely creditable effort. Your finish looks pretty good, stem looks like a stem, it's recognizeable as a pipe and even evocative of a certain era. There's a dozen weird little technical things (like that stem alignment) that could be improved, sure. But they get stranger and stranger to talk about and assess on this kind of pipe, because as LL says, the nature of the beast is that it kinda has no particular rule set.

[UnderShade]

Excellent Sas! I’m loving this!

[LatakiaLover]

Excellent Sas! I’m loving this!

Careful...

Whatever you do, DON'T be tempted to visit him for more information.

Many have felt the pull, none have come back...

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