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I think you'll find that the answer is "it depends". Depends on media, pressure, what gun you have, every variable. I think in generall the media and pressure have a bigger result than the nozzle. I have a janky rig with the consumable tips, and I simply start with a worn one that is proba...

When you make something, and it's difficult and time consuming and you put your heart and soul into it, you WANT it to be good. That should drive this whole thing. But wanting something to be good and actually being able to make something actually genuinely good (which is to say something where iden...

I know Tyler uses long 1/16" bits to carry on cutting, rather than flipping anything around. I like to mount the stem, look at it for length, and decide at the last second just exactly how long I want it, I don't feel like that's a decision I make (unless I'm building from a pattern) ahead of t...

Yes to all that. I drill in with the tapered bit some certain unspecified amount that is less than "Oh shit that's too far" (having some rough idea what I'm making, be it a lovat or whatever). Then I choose the actual stem length visually, with the thing actually sitting stuck in the stumm...

My kid is into barefoot hiking boots and has a set of "casual" shoes too, just super light and flexible. She says her feet are changing shape.

Yeah I have nearly impossible feet, wide at the front, skinny heels, high arches, just awful. Certain German brands fit me okay but mostly they don't make "lifestyle compatible" footwear. Like, Birkenstock does make a boot now, but it's a pretty crappy build for 300 bucks. Keen's are cheap...

Keen's. Wide, tough, stable.

Yeah, and I mean, the current "Sea Rock" and corallo etc finishes and the finish I presented here on two pipes, it's not much different, like it might depend on the guy, the day, the amount of pressure. But the BEST sea rocks... the looks like something else entirely. https://i.imgur.com/L...

One is about 6 drywall screws epoxied into a block, the other a sharpened phillips screwdriver, or "pipe shiv".

Yes, hang on I'll take a pic, I use two different ones.

My sea rocks have a tiny smooth band, but it's done in a very unobtrusive way.

Oh jeez, eh? That's pretty strong talk.

And I think that looks like crunched scrotum skin right there.

No, I don't use the dremel at all for the finish, it's good for getting into little corners at the shank. Finish is carved up with a gouge first, then a cluster tool, then wire-wheel. https://i.imgur.com/BKFSV28.jpg https://i.imgur.com/kCYsGbf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/hNdWDFU.jpg As to the shank line...

There's probably something like 6 hours in that. It's really hard to know because you start the stem one night and there's 20 minutes, and then you cut the shape and drill it and go get a pizza, and then forget about it for a week, then go back and fit the stem because it's still sitting in the lath...

Anyone have any questions? Anyone at all?

These are pics from 2021, I put this on the facebook group, but it's better here. "What do you do when you have a block that just isn't great?" Well, we're famous high-grade pipe makers, all of us, so that never happens, right? No, of course we all have a block or two or two hundred that a...

Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both "yes" and "no". The defining metrics for Barling and Dunhill were simplicity and in some senses austerity, both of design and execution. When there's no more meat to take off, no lumps, no bumps, all your transitions are cle...

I've handled many old pipes. BBB, Charatan, Barling, Dunhill, Sasieni, all of 'em. The ones that bear the least "cheating" in shaping are Barling and Dunhill. They were VERY crisply cut. Charatan's are more like Italian pipes... "this is close enough". So I mean, some people will...

I've buffed 675 pipes on a 50 dollar drill press. At what point should I start to worry about the lateral forces?