Bull Moose the 2nd

[taharris]

This is my second Bull Moose. The first one I made was for a customer and I liked the style so much that I decided to make a second one.

I made an effort to incorporate your comments from the first one and I believe that this one is better.

Please give me a reality check.








Thanks for looking.

Todd

[Sasquatch]

Lots of sharp lines and pretty good symmetry.

I think the thing that jumps out at me the most is that the top of the shank/stem is shaped like a hawkbill (reverse bend) and the bottom of the pipe is shaped the other way, and the net result is that the stem looks bulgey and the shank looks like it pinches at the bowl.

It's very very difficult to carry a nice curve through a shank, perhaps even more so on a thick short one - not much time to get the idea across.

If you go look at some "proper" bullmeese, http://glpease.com/Pipes/Shapes/Bulldogs.php like lower in this page here, you'll see that the shank section is mostly kept straight - it's simply built on an angle, and really the shank doesn't curve at all. This is probably the only way to keep definition over the whole shape - keep it "English" in nature rather than a swirly pudgy fudged out Italian sort of treatment (and part of this comes from the types of machining used in both - if you lathe out a bowl and a shank, you get a bent pipe with essentially a straight but angled shank. If you grind the shank out on a shaping wheel, you can curve it and do all kinds of fancy shit, but often at the expense of that real crisp look that english pipes (and kaywoodies) have. This is the difference (one difference) between a dunhill bent billiard and a Castello bent billiard.

Here's some rather lurid examples:

http://www.cupojoes.com/cgi-bin/spgm?dp ... unamr4213b

http://www.cupojoes.com/cgi-bin/spgm?dp ... m=closrkkk

[taharris]

Actually Sas, I think you are just seeing the results of bad photography. The angle of the sun and the angle of the photographer have combined in the first picture to make the shank look like it is bent. It is, in fact, straight, although it might dip just a hair right at the stem/bowl junction. If found this junction to be the most difficult portion of the whole pipe. No room to work and too many angles and lines to preserve. If you look closely at the second picture you should see that there is no bend.

I wholeheartedly agree that the stem should be straight.

Thanks.

[Sasquatch]

Let me run this by ya then Todd: How it is matters not. How it looks is all.

Now that's enough Pipe-Yoda for today I think.

[RadDavis]

What would help this pipe immensely is a lot more taper to the stem. Start your taper at the shank end and make the stem have a wedge profile, then bend it.

Rad

[taharris]

Thanks Rad.

That helps. I struggled with how to give the stem the shap that it needed to have.

Todd

[taharris]

Let me run this by ya then Todd: How it is matters not. How it looks is all.

Now that's enough Pipe-Yoda for today I think.

So, what you are trying, so uneloquently, to say is that perception is reality?
(You are correct. )

[Sasquatch]

What I'm saying is, it doesn't matter a rat's furry ass if somthing is straight/flat/bevelled/tapered.... if it measure's to within .0001" "true" - none of that matters one bit if it doesn't look right.

Rad's right for once - the stem is too fat too soon and too bulgy in doing so - the net effect is that it may in fact be adding an "apparent curve" to the top of the shank that isn't in fact there, but on the whole, the thing presents as one set of lines up top and a different set below and that's what jars me. I think a lot of that would probably go away if you did in fact thin the stem out more aggressively.

[taharris]

but on the whole, the thing presents as one set of lines up top and a different set below

Now I understand, and after looking again I must admit that I agree. Dammit!

Yours and Rad's comments are very helpful.

Thanks,

[JMG]

Nice looking pipe...colors especially. My only critique is that I think you should try to open up the smoke hole, slot, whatever it's referred to as. Good job, though.

[taharris]

Thanks.

And, yes, I am still refining my stem work.

Todd

[Boekweg]

Nice job there taharris!