Bull Moose!

[taharris]

My first commissioned pipe! A big stubby pipe for a BIG guy.

I'm not usually a fan of stubby pipes, but I love the Bull Dog family and the longer I worked on this pipe the more I began to like this shape.

Thanks for looking and, as always, I welcome your constructive criticism.

Todd

[baweaverpipes]

With the grain being extremely bland, possibly a contrast stain might have helped, with the first stain being dark. That would have matched well with the stem. That's my humbled opinion.

[taharris]

Actually, I did use a contrasting dye for the base coat. I used a bright red and then overlaid with a honey brown.

The red didn't show up quite as much as I wanted, but I did manage to enhance the grain a little.

My photographic skills suck.

The grain isn't consistent all the way around, but there is a nice birds eye on the top of the bowl that didn't show up well in the pictures.

All that said, you are correct. I should probably start investing in better cuts of wood if I am going to sell pipes.

Thanks for the input Bruce.

Todd

[Sasquatch]

Especially on a bulldoggy type shape - in a sense there's no excuse for not having bird on the rim and a nice v-shaped grain on the bowl. And buying briar that will allow that is not way more expensive in any event.

Symmetry looks pretty good, button looks comfortable. I'm not keen on bending the stem past the plane of the top of the bowl (in fact I'm not sure if the stummel has any angle on it or not, but a guy could argue that this is a bent stem on a straight pipe). Could be the photos but the stem looks wider than the shank as viewed from the top or bottom. This is a bit of a no-no - gives the stem kind of a pudgy look.

But it's definitely in the family you were shooting for, and has the overall compact hugeness that a bullmoose ought.

[Taspiper]

Airway is off centre a tad? Hey but I'm just anal.
Exciting to get a commission for the first time, I know I was, well done Todd.

[taharris]

Good comments guys, and thanks for the input.

Airway is off centre a tad? Hey but I'm just anal.

Yes, the draft hole is just slightly off .
(You're not anal, attention to detail is what separates a good pipe from a great pipe.)

One thing I forgot to mention is that I used a derlin tenon for this pipe and found it to be a very nice material to work with. I will be using derlin in the future. Thanks, Kirt, for putting the derlin tutorial on the forum.

The only issue I had with the derlin is that I found the tenon to flex a little but too much to do much refining of the stem while inserted into the stemel and turning on my wood lathe.

Todd

[Boekweg]

@taharris

Nicely done.

[taharris]

Thanks Boekweg.