Second to last of the swirl mouthpiece

[jogilli]

Good day

Well I have only one more swirl mouthpiece pipe in the works... and this one just might become mine

james

[Sorringowl]

This is a really visually striking design. I really like the shaping and stem work on this. Beautiful color on the morta and the stem.

Did you turn the saddle of the stem on a lathe, or do it freehand?

[jogilli]

thanks.. originally i turned it on a lathe, but the flow with the curve along the bottom of the pipe didn't met my expectations. I was working on an mouthpiece that flowed out from the stem.. it didn't look right so I took it back down more or less freehand.. dremel and sandpaper until the line flowed from the shank into the mouthpiece.

Moral of the story... my orignal lathe turned mouthpiece looked awful and didn't flow with the pipes curves.. so I change it with my dremel, files, and sandpaper

james

[e Markle]

I really dig the unstained morta - very cool. I like a number of things about the pipe, but I think your bit and shank need some work. I do think it's a nice shape though.

[jogilli]

Ernie

Thanks.. what kind of work?

james

[Boekweg]

Very nice morta pipe you have made there!

[e Markle]

Ernie

Thanks.. what kind of work?

james

I can't tell how big the pipe is from the pics, but it looks like the stem is fairly thick behind the button. Make that as thin as you safely can. In the second pic it looks like there's a very sudden bend in the stem (it could just be the light), but you want that as smooth and graceful as possible. You mentioned you had some problems with the stem, and you can see a bit of that at the stem/shank junction (2nd & 3rd pics).

[jogilli]

Ernie

(the measurements were bugging me so I remeasured .. 3 times.. new numbers in para below)

Thanks..I went and looked at it again and the bend is there but not as dramastic as in the picture.. the light added to it.. it's a fairly small pipe.. deminsions below and the diameter behind the butoon is 4.4mm with the opening in the mouthpiece sitting at 1.74mm ( I shot for 1.6-1... leaving a little more than 1mm on each side of the air hole... in oder to allow for bitters how much much play room is safe? .5mm I think is a little thin, but as an rule of thumb I'd like to know what excess material some of the more accomplished (you included) leave on each side of the air hole.. gives me something to shoot for.. I think the mouthpieces are the hardest part of a pipe to make

I always leave between .2 and .3mm of play room for the paste I used to do my initial polishing of the mouthpiece as it is taken away during polishing..

again tks
james

Length: 5" 127mm
Width: 1 1/2" 38mm
Height: 1 7/8" 47mm
Chamber: 3/4" 19mm
Weight: 48g

[jogilli]

Ernie

Point taken.. I'm leaving this one alone, but I went back to work on my last swirl mouthpiece pipe for a while and got it down to 3.75mm.. (air hole still opens up to a little under 1.8mm) and the difference is noticable

Enjoy your coming week

james

[JMG]

Sorry to say, but I haven't typically liked this stem material on your past work. However, I must say, it ain't lookin' too bad on this Morta. I agree with Ernie about thinning the button down. Cool looking pipe, man.