Revisiting an old pipe

[kamkiel]

Around a year or two ago I made the pipe



My wife loved to tell me how ugly and stupid the stem looked.

Today I played around with some boxwood and acrluc and made it a new stem





My wife thinks it looks much better, abd helped me take these pictures of it. Does this stem look okay? I've seem similar stems on those savenelli authors, and never cared too much for how they looked. This stem shape might be growing on me though.

Comments, critiques, etc. always welcome

Kiel

[W.Pastuch]

The first one was much better. You should have thinned it down a little bit behind the rounded transition and it would work very well imo. You actually made this one into a Savinelli with the big thick stem

[sandahlpipe]

I think the stem has just a little bit too much thickness to it at the middle. It appears to bulge. I think Savinelli makes theirs fairly bulgy as well, if my memory serves me. In this case, though, your stem looks to be too chubby in relation to the shank.

[danilo]

I agree with w.pastuch, but I never go against my wife. She has no reason to make sense and i always lose with my arguments. ( just a joke)

[DocAitch]

It looks like the 320 Savinelli. I agree that it looks too thick, but I know others collect that shape.
I would slim it a bit.
DocAitch

[kamkiel]

Thanks guys for the pointers. The diameter of the shank is almost 20mm. On the stem, near the shank, I cut it a little over 19mm and the did a straight taper to 16mm down to the button. It does look like it bulges slightly in the middle and I wouldnt doubt that it actually does. When you say its too thick, are you referring to the side profile view of the stem?

Kiel

[LatakiaLover]

Smooth/slenderize the bulged area in the middle, and bend the entire stem more smoothly, and you'll have it I think.

More like this (but with slightly less "hook" through the bite zone):

[sandahlpipe]

The bulge is mostly from the profile view, yes. And I'm with George on slenderizing the stem.

[pipedreamer]

A good diet, maybe? Slender isn't always beautiful.The hook, I agree with Mr. Dibos!!! Overall impression is paramount when dealing with a wife. I'd follow her, the pipe will smoke longer and sweeter...

[kamkiel]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! Getting nice lines on my stems has been an ongoing problem, especially on bent tapered stems. Will continue to work on this, and hopefully will show sone improvement on the next ones.

Out of curiosity, anyine happen to have an unbent tapered stem that I can look at?

Kiel

[LatakiaLover]

Out of curiosity, anyine happen to have an unbent tapered stem that I can look at?

Not at the moment, but one of the basics that isn't intuitive is in order to look right AFTER bending, the taper must be asymmetrically "duck bill" shaped in profile BEFORE bending. How much depends on both thickness and degree of bend. Meaning, you'll have to experiment.

Also, getting the very best result requires some shaping after bending.

This "bending a thick taper stem" thing drove many of the entrants mad at the last KC Carving Contest, where the required shape was the Author. It is VERY difficult to do well.

Hang in there.

[kamkiel]

Thanks for the encouragement LL. I'll get it one of these days, but in the mean time at least I have y'all to tell what I can improve on.