Bent Brandy(?)

[DaGamba]

Would like some honest(and harsh, if necessary... ) opinions about this one.












All the best,

Pär

[Walle]

Pär,

quite harsh (because it's necessary): Beautyful!
Swedish performance at its best.

Cheerio!
Walle

[mathias65]

I agree with Walle, simply awesome and beautiful grain.

[JMG]

DG...this is just an awful looking pipe. You should send it to me immediately for, uh...destruction.

[DaGamba]

DG...this is just an awful looking pipe. You should send it to me immediately for, uh...destruction.

Well, I'm sure you would do a good job killing this one, JMG...

I basically have two concerns about this pipe. 1: that the stem might be a bit to short. 2: that the shank is a bit to thin. What do you think?

The block that this pipe came out of had some really fantastic flame grain! Most of it got lost when shaping, unfortunately.
This is one of 50 blocks I bought from Jaume. I got 25 extra plateaux and 25 extra ebauchon. Sure, it's not the best wood in the world but I didn't pay for that either. And there are some really nicely grained pieces in there. The Billiard I posted a while ago was also from the same shipment. With shipment I payed 4.26 euro per block. In my opinion that sort of puts an end to the discussion weather it's profitable to practise on cheaper wood....

Oh, and thank you guys for your nice comments,

Pär

[Dixie_piper]

It is indeed a fine looking pipe. I'm far from being able to critique, but with that being said, the only slight glitch that catches my eye is a slight disturbance in the stem/shank junction, and the bottom of the stem seems to take a different angle from the shank. That's just what I see when LOOKING for something unusual, I haven't got the "eye" for these things.
But let me stress, that I'm an idiot, so I could be wrong. Either way, still a very nice pipe, kudos!

[DaGamba]

You're totally right, Dixie. And now when you pointed my eyes in that direction, it's clear that the upper and the lower line of the shank/stem is not very well made. Thanks.

[wdteipen]

The stem is the right length and the shank width looks good to me. The shank is what could be a little longer but it's still a stunning pipe. I like it a lot. Nice job.

[Abi Natur]

Moin Pär.
the comrades took the burden from me to express myself in an harsh and explicit manner toward this absolutely beautifully shaped Brandy with a finish from the book!OK. th stem-shanke line may have skipped a little bit,but i don't see it as a mega flaw if you want still to sell it.

Congrats
Best,
Abi

[maxmil]

Good flamed. Adjustment should take better care of the edges of the mouthpiece with the cane. It is my opinion.
Regards.
Felix

Buen flameado. Deberías cuidar mas el ajuste de los bordes de la boquilla con las de la caña. Es mi opinión.
Saludos.
Félix

[DaGamba]

Thank you for your comments guys.

[Sasquatch]

Okay ... party's over boys.




This is a striking pipe for sure - nice grain contrast, really good finish - the bit work is terrific, that end looks like it came out of an expensive machine.

Having been on a bit of a bent-brandy tear myself, including copying, er, repli.. er, uh, being inspired by a Smio Satou pipe for Tigercasual, I have learned some stuff that I will pass on here as best I can.

This pipe is a little pudgy, a little bottom heavy at the front end, and the result is that the top of the bowl and the sides of the brandyglass don't appear to be at the same angle. If a tiny bit of material is taken off the bottom/front curve, the thing is totally rectified. (cut off in white lines on the diagram).

Likewise, along the bottom, the shape (because of the curve) drops below the line of the stem, for a sort of pudgy look. This you can get away with, but you have to be careful - the top line of the shank is tight and straight, so having the bottom fudge out just looks wrong. One way of tacking this is to add a bit of a flare to the saddle - this offers a set of natural curves for the top and bottom lines of the shank (indicated in blue in the diagram).







Just for a giggle, Check this Satou brandy: http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/s ... t_id=49669

Likewise, as a contrast, have a look at the top pipe in this photo - it's all hard lines, razor sharp and no "pudge" - http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv34 ... utdown.jpg

So there's two totally different approaches to a bent brandy, and both work, and I'd argue that yours is sort of caught in the middle. It isn't all tight hard lines and it isn't all flowing grace, it's a mix, and so compositionally, it's "neither fish nor fowl".

But I'm leaning hard here and pushing you in the direction of superpipes. You've got "just pipes" pretty much licked, and the next step is composition rather than just "making".

Bent brandies are pretty hard. It's easy to get something just a little too fat or a little too skinny, etc etc, and you get a brandy out of it, but getting a really well-shaped pipe out is not easy.

[DaGamba]

Thanks a lot Sas! This is exactly the kind of comments I need. Comments that push forward. That's some really helpful hints there. Something did feel wrong about this pipe but I couldn't put my finger on it.

[Charl]

For me the shank should have been a bit longer, maybe just 5/10mm?
But still a very good pipe with marvellous grain1

[Nate]

Very handsome work!! I really like your choice of color!