#27 - Fifth Billiard Attempt - Feedback Appreciated

[RickB]

Standard gallery post boilerplate: my self critique is below the pictures - I'll point out the specific things that I know I struggled with to let you guys know where I know I've missed the mark so you don't have to waste time repeating things - I'm deeply appreciative of everyone's time and help. This was the second of three pipes I completed in the batch with the Turnip, and I suspect that a lot of the criticism leveled at that one applies here as well. Apologies for the picture brightness cutting into the edges some, I built a little lightbox out of a cardboard box and I'm still trying to figure that shit out.



















The Good:
1. My best billiard thus far (I think?)
2. The finish (but not the staining, see below) is probably the best I've managed thus far as well (shout out to our illustrious Seamonster)
3. Tenon/stem face best of this batch
4. Waviness in bottom line is just from me being bad at reflections in my ersatz lightbox

The Bad:
1. Bowl is almost certainly too fat, rim too thick, and weight still too far down and back
2. Staining is uneven and lighter than I'd wanted
3. Profile of blade of stem needs refinement
4. Some waviness in straightness of stem/shank sides, more conspicuous on left side
5. Taper on front and back of bowl don't match, and both are probably are too much for the coveted Seal of Sasquatch Billiard Approval (TM)
6. Roundness of stem leaves something to be desired (in that it's not perfectly round)

The Ugly (AKA things I think I need the most specific help with):
1. Left/right asymmetry of bowl very visible from the front, and they're WAY off.
2. So now that I know what rounding the barrel is, I definitely know I did that shit.
3. Same flat spot on the back of the bowl here as on the turnip. I can't see it in the pictures, but can feel it on the pipe - I think I might be starting too far cut in on the back and then I'm not rounding the bowl enough because I'm scared of compressing the dimensions and cutting the transition in too far.
4. Something I mentioned in the PITH 2018 thread was how much I admired the crispness of Scottie's prize winning author - I notice the crispness of those lines everywhere, but especially around the rim. I've been trying to dome the outside 1/3 and then convex bevel the inner 2/3 on these, and I think I'm kissing that edge off when I try to dome it. This might be something as simple as "stop using your thumb as a sanding backer, dummy", but I'd love advice there.

Thanks as always y'all, lemme have it.

[LatakiaLover]

Not bad.

Others will chime in, so I'll stick to just a few points.

Line-holding on the shank needs sharpening overall.

The "scoop" portion of the stem---the barrel to blade transition---needs deepening plus a smoother & larger radius.

The barrel / shank length ratio is a bit off for the blade length. The pipe can't decide if it wants to be a lovat or a billiard. For future reference, the overall length you actually have should have consisted of more barrel and correspondingly less shank, I think (vertical yellow line).

.

[RickB]

Awesome - thank you George. I've gotten into a habit of just making the shank as long as I can with the block I've got, and then sort of winging it for the stem length - obviously that's not ideal, I'll try to pay more attention to that in the future. I'll try cutting that radius in deeper as well - I've been using a 6mm Iwasaki round file to cut that in, but I'm not sure that's the right tool for the job necessarily - at least not in terms of getting that radius right.

I've been shooting for a taper from 3.9mm at the button up to ~6mm at the scoop, but I'll see if I can't get that smaller (or make real good and sure I hit that 6mm mark and not a hair thicker). I was thinking that a super deep funnel be worth doing in that case to make sure I don't cut too close, but now that I'm doing the math, I guess at 6mm I'd have a full mm above and below, and that's way more than I've got at the bite zone, so probably no need...

[LatakiaLover]

Here are some good reference shots of a barrel + blade + round shank stem that's similar to yours:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a ... style-stem

There are definitely tricks to getting things straight and crispy, and the scoop deep and even on this type of stem. You're probably getting about as close as you can with the tools and techniques you're using.

I semi-recently got a camera that will let me make decent videos, and this is exactly the sort of "final 10%" stuff I intend to cover. (Trying to explain it with words is insane)

[RickB]

Thank you again. I'd bookmark that video and watch it probably more times than you'd believe. I still watch the crease video about every 3rd or 4th pipe, even though my skills still aren't at a point where I can fully put it into practice reliably.

[RickB]

And actually, still waiting on that button shaping video you promised at the end of the last one