pipemakersforum.com

Welcome. It was nice meeting you and nice to see you here.

Is there any way of making it so we can post pics directly rather than link to a photo host? I can't remember the last time I used my photobucket account and it was such a pain.

Real name: Nathan Armentrout Age: 40 Location: Lancaster, CA Years a pipe smoker: 6 How you got into pipe making: Found a pipe kit online and thought it would be a good way to pass the time while my wife was puking her guts out the entire second half of her pregnancy. It was so bad I had to learn ho...

Are you serious about your Uncle? I love October Sky. I show it to my engineering kids every year.

The stain has seeped through. This could mean the presence of a flaw in that area but it is totally normal especially with thin walled pipes and often sandblasts. This is one of the reasons why many makers use a bowl coating because, although its not a problem, it is unsightly.

d.huber wrote:

NathanA wrote:I'm pretty sure we are all artists.

I think my world just fell apart.

Well, I'm right here ready to give you a big hug!!

I'm pretty sure we are all artists.

Hit all the sides with your sanding disc to clean and straighten them then spray with some water to see grain patterns. For the most part, what you see on the outside will be very similar to what is on the inside. If you are asking if there is any way to know if there are any big flaws on the inside...

Is the gap equal on all sides or just on the top of the shank from pulling down on the stem? If you have a gap after bending on just one side you can usually eliminate it by holding the shank face to a piece of sandpaper on a perfectly flat piece of something (I use a granite tile) and pull the shan...

It's certainly a big change in how pipemakers are perceived by their potential clients- the more "likes", "shares" and comments, the better the pipe. But a friend once told me a very funny and true phrase: being famous on the internet is like being rich in Monopoly. Perfect Answ...

I might add market forces to the list of cons. Pipe makers do tend to make what customers buy. And since most customers expect ebonite, that's what we make most of the time. I'm sure if the market wanted acrylic, you'd see makers start using it more. It's driving a hard bargain when you try convinc...

Lol! C'mon Nathan! I'm not suggesting that I can decide that my chair is a kite or a car is a whale. That's delusion, not perception. An audience is required to decide if what you make is art or not. You can decide for yourself but that choice is utterly irrelevant. If someone believes that they ma...

Oh, yeah. It is up to the audience to decide if it is good art or bad art not if it is or is not art. Audiences can't decide that chickens are ducks but they can decide which has prettier feathers or which tastes better but that in itself is subjective.

It is art if it is intended to be art by the creator and can then be judged as such. It is a pipe if it has been created to be a pipe and can then be judged as such. When arbitrary lines are drawn as to which shapes are and are not art then it illustrates the pointlessness of the conversation becau...

Ridiculousness. No shape is art. Ask Gotoh if he makes pipes or art. If he intends his creations to be art he therefore isn't a pipemaker. Pipes can have artistic value and they can be artistically crafted but that is far different than art. Why? If an artist has created what they feel to be art th...

I think I should follow up my previous comments. I believe that most pipes made are firmly rooted in the realm of craft. You can say they are artfully crafted if you like- although I'm still not sure I agree with the phrasing. Maybe beautifully crafted works better. (OOH! There's another question, ...

Art has no practical use. It is entirely aesthetic in nature. That is why there are no pipe artists but there are artisan pipemakers (quite a few if you believe all the hashtags on IG). In other words Micah said it best. Pipe making is a craft that can be artfully executed. Thanks/you're welcome, Mi...

I have something similar in size and power and it is iffy with briar blocks. If the blade is good and sharp and everything is tuned and aligned it does ok but if the blade is the least bit dull it gets bogged down and can take forever to cut a block. It will work, just not wonderfully.

If the pipe is just for yourself and you don't have access to all the tools everyone is insisting you use and you don't really want to spend the money right now just tape off the stem with some good blue masking tape or something and carefully get it as close as you can. It won't be perfect but it s...

Its the ebonite. That japanese stuff needs 2-3mm shaved off before you get past that, probably more. 16mm is pretty small so I'm guessing you didn't take much off the outer surface. The price on that stuff is right but the quality is iffy at best.