Billiard

[mightysmurf8201]

Finished this one today as well. I've been experimenting with an air powered needle scaler for rusticating, and this is the result. Thoughts, comments, and critiques are welcome.

[scotties22]

I think it is more of a pot than a billiard. It's too short to be a proper billiard. The shank cap looks well done but does help throw off the traditional billiard proportions off.

I like the rustication. Its quite subtle and you managed to really keep the shape looking sharp.

All-in-all a great looking pipe!

[mightysmurf8201]

Thanks Scottie! I think it's more pot like as well. The profile of the bowl is too square to be billiard. You do bring up something I've been considering the last few days though since you've mentioned it. Might sound like a noob question, but I genuinly don't know. If a shank cap is used like this, at what point would the cap count or not count towards the traditional dimensions of, let's say a billiard? Would you measure from the the cap/shank junction, or the entire length including the cap?

[scotties22]

On this pipe it is all shank cap and there really isn't a shank. As far as how long the cap should be, I really don't know. Todd would probably be able to give us a good rule of thumb

[Sasquatch]

This is another area that is interesting to play with. If you put a nickel band on a billiard, does that effectively shorten the shank? Probably, but if you add the band's worth of material to the shank it will look too long, that's for sure.

On this pipe the decoration is large and chunky, and for me it works for two reasons - one is there's a nice visual detail of swirl that would be lost on a smaller piece, and two, the pipe is distinctly chunky and the overall short presentation works, I find it very unified.

[Charl]

I would have liked the briar part of the shank to be more or less the same as the shank cap, but that's me.
The rustication is very cool!