pipemakersforum.com

I finished these last week, but only got a chance to photograph them today. I made them for a custom order, and made one slightly longer so that the customer could choose which he liked better - as luck would have it, he took both.

This one is about 9" overall, and sports a stag horn ring on the stem. The stag is actually countersunk on both ends to make the fit seamless.






This one here is longer, at about 11.5" overall, and has a synthetic ivory ring on the stem. Again, both sides are countersunk to make for a seamless fit.

Kurt,
they're really nicely done. The last one somehow reminds me of a traditional Japanese pipe...

Unusual (and nice) finish. You creative thing, you.

Too bad the only reasonable option for long stems anymore is that standard molded one, because the ivory widget gives the pipe a Nobleman-y sort of vibe.

Cool that your customer took the set. That will happen more often than not---make two w/a slight variation whenever you can (when the shape is a reasonable one), and it'll pay dividends.

btw, were your working on the site earlier tonight, or is my browser getting finicky?

Good stuff, Kurt. I'm not generally a fan of the long-stemmed pipes but those two work well. What's the stem material? It appears as if there are light-colored flecks in it, but it could be trick of the images.. or is it?

Thanks for the comments, guys.

hazmat wrote:What's the stem material? It appears as if there are light-colored flecks in it, but it could be trick of the images.. or is it?

It's vulcanite. those light colored flacks are e not wiping dust off of it before snapping the photos.

I like that finish! It almost looks ceramic in texture, but the grain makes it organic. Great effect.

Absolutely great finish. What did you do, pray tell us please?

steve morrisette

Well....

Without giving away too much, it's a two-stage blast with lots of stain.

I've recently switched to glass beads after a couple years of using aluminum oxide, and that's the only way that finish was accomplished. Even at that, I had to play a *lot* with different media sizes and air pressures. All in all, it probably took me 3 days of full-time work on scrap briar pieces to get it where I liked it and felt comfortable using it on a pipe.