Is this one dead?

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Sat May 21, 2005 5:59 pm

So I started pipe #5 last night. Today I cut a tenon for it and fit the stem. Then I removed the sides of the shank with my bandsaw and I found this:

Is this a pipe killer? I was actually interested in seeing how the shape turned out. I found a couple of other cracks in this block, but nothing looked really serious until this. I still have some wood on the shank to remove, but I don't think it will be enough. What do you guys do when you find something like this? Scrap it?

This is disappointing. I have been working with some $7 ebauchons (I bought 10), and I told myself I would practice on these before moving to some nicer $12/block plateaux I bought. But of the 5 or so I have worked I have run into stuff like this quite a bit. Should I move to the plateaux? One reason I am not moving on is that I am still screwing up other little stuff. This is the first block I drilled with a new tobacco chamber bit with a much more conical shape. Found out that this is MUCH less forgiving in terms of not hitting the draft hole dead center. This is pretty far off to one side, but at least the two met up! I'd hate to ruin better wood that way. But working for a number of hours only to have stuff like the cracks above appear is frustrating too.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
ScoJo the WC Forger

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Sat May 21, 2005 6:30 pm

I still finish just about every pipe I start... just because I feel like I need the practice on lots of other stuff. If I were you, I'd finish it and keep it (which is what you do with them right now anyway, right?). Practice on the rest of it. If you can't see the crack inside the mortise, then leave it a little chunky and you'll be good as far as cracking the shank go. It's not like the Shank generates any significant heat anyway. I'd keep it and take that shank down to something chunky but nice. Then just work the rest of the pipe and practice. That's what I do... but that's just because I like the practice!

Post by **Tyler** » Sat May 21, 2005 8:20 pm

If you have more wood, kill that one and move on to something that will turn out a nice pipe. Of course, I've stated before that I hate the notion of practice. If I can't make a pipe, I don't want to work on it.

Drill the next one with the same size mortise, and use the same stem and at least recover the time and effort you spent on that.

Tyler

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Sat May 21, 2005 10:29 pm

Well, that made the decision easy. I put my hand over the bowl, blew in the stem, and found air coming out the side of the shank. Turns out that sucker goes all the way through to the draft hole! Didn't see it on the inside of the mortise, but further down it goes clean through to the draft hole.

Another one for the briar graveyard. I gotta admit, I am eyeing up that plateaux...

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Sun May 22, 2005 2:17 am

Keep the wood to practice rustication and staining.

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Sun May 22, 2005 8:55 am

I'm going to. The bowl at least. I have to admit, I hacked up the shank with the bandsaw to take a look at the inside of the flaw. Pretty gnarly stuff. Threw the stem back into a drawer in case it happens to fit anything else I make. But I had shortened up the tenon to fit that mortise exactly, so who knows if I'll be able to use it - I may use it later to practice inlays or something.

NvilleDave · Post by **NvilleDave** » Sun May 22, 2005 7:30 pm

Tyler wrote:If you have more wood, kill that one and move on to something that will turn out a nice pipe. Of course, I've stated before that I hate the notion of practice. If I can't make a pipe, I don't want to work on it.

Drill the next one with the same size mortise, and use the same stem and at least recover the time and effort you spent on that.

Tyler

This is basically what I was asking in my previous post--do you bother finishing anything you know isn't going to be a nice pipe... I say no. Defining "nice" to me means a pipe I would be proud to offer to someone else and have my name stamped on it.
Dave

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Sun May 22, 2005 8:49 pm

NvilleDave wrote: This is basically what I was asking in my previous post--do you bother finishing anything you know isn't going to be a nice pipe... I say no. Defining "nice" to me means a pipe I would be proud to offer to someone else and have my name stamped on it.
Dave

Oh, I don't know. All of my own pipes are ones I kept because of some flaw or another. I'd never offer them to anyone, or stamp my name on them, but they smoke well, and only leave the shop to go fishing. That pipe could easily have been saved by filling the fissure with epoxy, then finishing and rusticating. If I can figure out how to post photos, maybe I'll put up a picture of one of my shop pipes. I'm very picky about pipes that leave my shop, but as for my own pipes, so long as they have a nice shape, feel good in my hand and have a good airway, I don't worry about flaws.

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:14 am

Remove the stem and you have a nice pen or pencil holder

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Mon May 23, 2005 9:43 am

Well, after uncovering that monster and realizing it went clean through to the draft hole, I got frustrated and sawed the shank off to take a look at the inside, so it won't be saved now. There was also a crack on the back of the bowl that you can sort of see in the photo, and another one on the inside on the lower half of the front of the bowl. Too many flaws to bother, I think. I threw the stem and pipe remains in a drawer (the "graveyard") in the hopes of getting some use out of them in the future. The tenon was pretty short on the stem, though. In the future I want to lengthen them a bit, so I doubt that stem will find its way onto a future pipe. It's sitting there along with about three other stems that I ruined in some way (making the tenon WAY too short with sanding that was too aggressive, chewing up the tenon trying to turn it, snapping the tenon off in a pipe that I cracked the shank of trying to get it out, etc.).

Someone remind me why I took this up again?

I'll try again for #5. But I'm in Puerto Rico this week on business, so it won't be for a while. In the meantime, anyone else out there have some photos for the gallery? I want to see some new creations! They give me hope.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon May 23, 2005 11:32 am

I've got a new one on my desk right now, but no batteries fro the camera. Bleech!

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Tue May 24, 2005 1:45 am

Every pipemaker has a box or basket full of stummels that have met just such a fate. The more pipes made, the bigger the box. I once had a particularly bad run of briar where I started 24 blocks and got five pipes. So, better briar is one answer. But you know, when I need a new fishing pipe (and a fishing pipe must be, first and foremost, expendable -- one good "oh, sh--," you get maybe one grab at it and then it's gone forever) I seem to be able to root around in the box and find something to fix up with a stem in a half hour's work. Calling it research, I've found that almost any flaw that doesn't go through from the outside to the bowl (or vice versa) is fixable, and a smokable pipe can result. Cobbler's shoes and all that.

bmoz · Post by **bmoz** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:42 pm

put a bamboo shank on it

costi · Post by **costi** » Thu May 26, 2005 2:47 am

put the piece in to the vice,mill out the cracked portion,select a similar part of wood,turning to the proper diameter and make a cork: glue in to the hole,drill the shank again and rustication is imperativ.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu May 26, 2005 8:35 am

I like the bamboo idea. A bamboo volcano sounds great!