Learning to crawl with no lathe….classic shapes or freehands

[loosvelt]

Hey guys, gals, and pipemaking masters,

Wondering if you could give me a little advice. Hopefully, I don’t tick anybody off, as I tried to use the search tool as much as possible before asking this.

So I am very new to the craft, having only made a few freehands from pipe kits. I have assembled some basic tools (nice drill press, belt grinder, bandsaw, french/K.Huhn sanding wheel, buffers…etc) but do not have a wood or metal lathe. I am going to take the plunge and make my first non-kit pipe soon (using premade bits). I know I will have to focus on getting the mechanics right, and that this is critical to how well a pipe smokes. But what shapes should I focus on as a new maker? I seem to drawn to the Danish style, partly because I like them and partly because they just seem to be shapes more easily made with the tools I have. The English classics, in all their symmetrical perfection, seem to be great shapes for using a lathe. But I don’t know squat, and the great crafters can probably make a perfect Billiard or Canadian with files and sandpaper. Since I completely agree with the posts by Jeff and Todd regarding mastering the basics and don’t want to shortcut myself, I come with a humble plea for guidance.

Without a lathe, what shape(s) should I focus on making? Should I try to make the classics freehand? Or to do I focus on Danish style freehands? Thanks in advance.

[pennsyscot]

Make the style of pipe you like and enjoy yourself doing it.

[TRS]

Should I try to make the classics freehand?

Yeah, do this. Common consensus seems to be that if you get this first, your freehands that follow will be better for it.

[ToddJohnson]

Just start by making pipes that look like pipes you've seen before: billiards, Dublin's, apples, Danish style freehands, whatever has a fairly well defined pedigree and can be measured against many other successful examples of same said.

TJ

[KurtHuhn]

Agreed. Just make pipes. Aim for pipes that you want to smoke, and you'll have way more fun.

[Sasquatch]

Trad, as a guy who started doing a few pots, and then a few copies of some peterson shapes, and then tried to branch out (result being ugly pipes) into a more free approach, I can guarantee you'll learn more and faster by doing traditional shapes - pots, billiards, dublins, than by trying to pull the perfect Bo Nordh freehand off.

My freehands got better once I knew what went into make a pipe look half decent in the first place.

As to the lathe, I certainly spun a few, but it isn't necessary. I'm currently doing a pot (that may turn into an apple because of a pit) and it won't see the lathe except to turn the tenon on the stem.

So find a classic pipe you like the look of, and copy it as close as you can, is my advice. Best if you have the pipe "on hand" in the shop.

[m.c.]

All established shapes will be good exercise and good fun. That said, in the absence of a lathe, I think making English shapes is more "hand-intensive" and making Danish shapes more "eye-intensive", though the difference may be all that tiny. Making a more liberal free-hand shape offers more chance to trick one's nitpicking eye if that shape has little to do with cylinders, diamonds, squares, perfect fits etc. and you have a somewhat sensitive taste of shapes. Whilst hand-shaping a billiard with near-perfect cylindrical shanks and seamless tenon fits can be a real test of saints' patience. It can be boring, but getting there can be truly fulfilling. The gremlin in me never allowed me to pull it off, but I do wish to see the wonders of a perfect billiard being worked out of files and sandpapers. My only advice is, if you plan to make something like a billiard without a lathe, triple your original time budget, because I always hate myself for not having done so.

[loosvelt]

Thanks for the info fellas. Hopefully this summer I can beg a couple makers near me to let me visit thier shop. I am sure that will help my progression. And when Todd gets his school going.... To bad I'll be at Disney World during the chicago show, would have loved to go to the seminar.

[BriarBrian]

Hey Trad,

Just make what you like and want to make. It's not rocket science just make what comes to mind and the important thing is to study shapes.

I do not use a lathe to turn bowls on the pipes that I make, and never have. I may someday but after 10 years or so, I dont know if I ever will, LOL, old dogs you know!

My drilling for the blocks are done on a Shopsmith, and my shaping is either by hand using a Dremel, but for the most part I use a 1"X30" belt sander that you can pick up from Harbor Freight for $30.00-$60.00 depending on what model you want to get.


So dont get hung up on having bunches of equipment, just make what you want to make and do it the best you can with what you got. And dont get hung up on "making the most beautiful pipe in the world" the first time or even the 20th time. It comes with practice remember that.

Brian

[T3pipes]

Copy a shape that you have available to look at and compare to.