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 kept the stem on the pipe throughout the sanding process so there is no longer a perceptible step between the two components. Something my boss, the technical director for my school's theatre department, noticed was that there is a bit of a flat spot at the shank. As in, if I put that area of the pipe on a flat surface, it does not cleanly arc throughout the gentle curve (with only the beginning of the stem and the base of the bowl touching), but instead, the bottom of the shank touches. Not sure if that made any sense. What I got from that bit of critique was that I still need to slowly improve my eye. Other areas for improvement are getting a better polish near the bite zone, though I think I need to utilize George's method with a nut seating bolt to get near the bit, followed up with the starfishified buffing wheel so i can polish the mouthpiece right up until the bit. I also spent a lot more time on the stem this time, and I actually sanded down the bite zone to a much more desirable thinness in addition to shaping the bit to look something similar to Michael Lindner's (and other pipemakers' bits, Lindner comes to mind). Many photos. It's a cloudy day so I spent 5 minutes making a (really bad) lighting box. I think it helps somewhat. Any other suggestions for improvement are welcome!
Thanks.
Alex
