Finished my No. 5 today .....

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:29 pm

I was in progress of working on two other pipes; when I read a recent comment on new carvers and their learning curve. It hit home a bit and I thought about it quite a while. While I can't totally agree on "copying" another pipe exactly; but that concept of recreating similar works by much more experienced or master carvers is a great way to figure out the techniques used by those that have gotten it right after years of work. Will ours as new carvers be perfect? Not bloody likely; but we hopefully can learn much along the way.

That said; I decided to pick a style of pipe that I really have admired, and make my own go at an impression of it. Now I didn't have the same briar, materials, or tools as the original carver; however I wasn't going to allow that to get in the way. Time to learn how to improvise.

I think it turned out pretty nice. Still not "complete" without a buffing station to shine it up on. My first with shaping the stem, drilling and setting a delrin tenon, and drilling the mortise and airway. Managed to do it freehand even, and get it pretty darned close to perfect. A little room for improvement still on the connection between the briar and extension.

Let me know what you think. Can you figure out which carver I was modeling?

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:18 pm

Had to lessen the bend in the stem. Just was too much!

pierredekat · Post by **pierredekat** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:20 pm

Well, hollywood, I haven't had a chance to tell you yet, but I have really liked your designs thus far, and you are doing amazingly well on your first pipes.

I am glad that you straightened out the stem as you did, because that was the one thing that really jumped out at me.

And I'm guessing it jumped out at you as well, once you had a chance to step back from it a bit and look.

This is something we all need to do on a periodic basis, because we are oftentimes too close to a project to see the obvious.

Very nice.

flix · Post by **flix** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:49 pm

Sorry, no guess, just a question: what is the extension material?

Nice pipe, btw. I like it...with the newer bend.

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:46 am

Took a couple of new pictures after I re-did my finish. I set up a small buffing station this weekend. I used a small grinder motor; took off both wheels and added arbors with 6" pads. Might still be too fast, but it worked pretty well compared to nothing.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:13 am

Very nice bud. The only critique I would really have is that the bottom portion of the bowl doesn't have any angle to it. Most bulldogs have a slant base and top. This one seems only to have the top slanted. Is that clear?

Let me see if I can find a picture.

Here's a good one:

Note how the portion of the pipe below the bead is not perpendicular to the ground.

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:35 am

Not quite clear on what angle you're referring to. Here's a better picture of the bottom.

hazmat · Post by **hazmat** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:20 am

hollywood wrote:Took a couple of new pictures after I re-did my finish. I set up a small buffing station this weekend. I used a small grinder motor; took off both wheels and added arbors with 6" pads. Might still be too fast, but it worked pretty well compared to nothing.

What speed does the grinder spin at? I used a standard bench grinder to buff on for several years until I got something lower speed. I never had too many problems getting a decent finish once I figured out not to push too terribly hard on the wheels.

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:01 pm

hazmat wrote: What speed does the grinder spin at? I used a standard bench grinder to buff on for several years until I got something lower speed. I never had too many problems getting a decent finish once I figured out not to push too terribly hard on the wheels.

Don't know, Matt. I'm guessing around 1500-1800. Wouldn't it be better if I could get it under 1000?

hazmat · Post by **hazmat** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:17 pm

hollywood wrote:
hazmat wrote: What speed does the grinder spin at? I used a standard bench grinder to buff on for several years until I got something lower speed. I never had too many problems getting a decent finish once I figured out not to push too terribly hard on the wheels.
Don't know, Matt. I'm guessing around 1500-1800. Wouldn't it be better if I could get it under 1000?

Hehe.. ask a dozen pipemakers.....

The one I started with was... 3450? something around there, standard bench grinder speed. You should get fine results with 1500-1800 once you get your methods worked out. Play with it for a bit and see how it works for you. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:27 am

1500-1800 rpm is quite acceptable. Under 1000 rpm might, in fact, be a bit too slow. It's the 3450 rpm motors that can scorch the briar and stems if you're not careful.
If the grinder has a label giving the volts, amps, hp, etc., it might also give the rpm's of the motor.

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:10 am

Frank wrote:1500-1800 rpm is quite acceptable. Under 1000 rpm might, in fact, be a bit too slow. It's the 3450 rpm motors that can scorch the briar and stems if you're not careful.
If the grinder has a label giving the volts, amps, hp, etc., it might also give the rpm's of the motor.

i will keep at it until i get it right ........ or get another motor. this one is older than me and came out of my late grandfather's basement.

James Sunderland · Post by **James Sunderland** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:06 pm

may I ask how you added the shank extension? or is just glued on with no other support? nice pipe too

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:18 am

James Sunderland wrote:may I ask how you added the shank extension? or is just glued on with no other support? nice pipe too

This extension was epoxied directly to the shank. Would really take some hammering to break it loose though. The next one I am working on will actually fit around the shank.