2nd Pipe, Horrible bowl, Better shank

[Masonrygh]

Hi guys,

This pipe taught me a lot of lessons, so I don't consider it a complete failure, although it was quite frustrating to mess up so badly.

Pay no attention to the bowl on this one, I was impatient and gouged into it during rough shaping.

Focus on the stummel/shank area, that's where I decided to focus on and while it's not perfect, it's better than my last pipe. Please tear it apart.

The main critiques from my last pipe were:

Sandahlpipe:

• Keep shank round from stem to bowl

• Work on shank-stem transition

LatakiaLover:

• Try to make a copy of a pipe instead of making one from scratch

As a model, I used my only non-corncob, a cheap no name briar pipe. Could someone please recommend an affordable, standard Billiard Pipe to use as a model while shaping? I don't care about manufacturer or whether it's new or estate. Just so long as the shape is a good representation of a proper Billiard. (I don't know enough yet to have a discerning eye when it comes to minute variations in pipe shape, so this recommendation is appreciated.)

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[Summary of Questions I need help with:

• What is the hardness of briar vs vulcanite? If I sand the stem and stummel together, will they even out at the same pace?

• How does one achieve the clear, glassy finish? I tried buffing with carnauba wax but couldn't get it to stick. Need a faster buffer?

• Could someone please recommend an affordable, sub $100, standard Billiard Pipe to use as a model while shaping?

Thank you all so much for your criticism. It is absolutely invaluable.

Mason Rygh

[Masonrygh]

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[Sasquatch]

Briar and ebonite are both fairly hard, though not identically so. You can and should work the stem and stummel at the same time, as one unit, for 99% of the operations on this kind of pipe, and shaping and sanding such that the lines aren't all wonky and everything looks just so is basically like 99% of the difficulty of making pipes. Takes practice. In general for these operations, the shape of the tool you pick up will be reflected in the shape of the thing you make - a round file makes round notches, a big flat file is better for smoothing big flat surfaces (like a stem/shank joint).

That super clear glassy finish takes some practice. Again in general, a guy is talking about having sanded to .... 600 or so? You polish the pipe with tripoli, most of us use a white diamond (even finer) compound after that. Most of us will use an oil or a very thin shellac at some stage (I do before tripoli), and then wax. Trying to "build" a wax finish is pretty tough, that's not really what wax is good at. You could spin it all day and if the surface prep isn't just so you'll never get that really shiny effect.

Almost any pipe shop will have a bunch of cheap pipes around, even just basket pipes at 30 bucks are usually shaped really well, having come off of shaping machinery - it's doing the machinery type work by hand that is difficult here.

[JMG]

I have fat fingers and apparently can't draw simple lines on my phone, but maybe this will give some ideas. The most glaring issue is the bowl/shank transition. You need to take off some more material there and tighten the radius. Secondly, the bottom of your shank line drops as you near the bowl. Hold a straight edge of some kind from your stem/shank junction to the bowl and you should have a straight line more-or-less. Also, it looks like you have too much cant on the bowl, but I think if you fix the bowl/shank transition it wouldn't look nearly as bad.

The good news is that I think you improved on the two things you specifically aimed to improve on. Keep that up and you are headed in a good direction.