Martin Hansen - Seahorse 3

[Martianh]

Hello everyone,

this is my first post here in the gallery. I've been a troll here for a while and finally have something worthwhile to show, I hope. This is a rather good-sized pipe in a 3rd variation of a shape I first made a few months ago. It has a calabash chamber, which I have fallen in love with that helps to make this pipe rather light, despite its size. The spacer is rosewood and the mouthpiece is ebonite. Anyway, I look forward to lurking a little less and being active a little more.










Oh yeah, I forgot.........GO BRONCOS!!!!!!




Martin Hansen

http://www.handmadetobaccopipes.com

[Ocelot55]

That's one hell of a first start. I love the shape, the grain, and the finish. Very beautiful. For me however, the stem doesn't seem to fit the overall theme of the pipe. I personally would have given it some curve.

Very well done. I can't wait to see your next one.

[pierredekat]

Very nice for an early pipe.

And welcome to the forum!

I don't usually critique people's early work, but you mentioned that this is a "3rd variation of a shape I first made a few months ago". And I take that to mean you have been working on this model for awhile, so I am going to go ahead and toss out a little bit of a critique.

The staining and overall execution on this pipe is quite nice. A lot of guys have to make dozens of pipes before they even manage a decent finish. So good job, there.

On the down side, the shank extension doesn't really work for me. To me, it looks like you ran out briar, so you added a little splice of some other type of wood with the intention of matching the briar, but you didn't quite match it.

Does that make sense?... To me, maybe a more blonde wood separated from the rest of the shank by a 1/16 to 1/8 inch (roughly 1.5 to 3 mm) thick disk/ring of ebonite would have worked better.

Next, you have this big, kindof clubby looking bowl that quickly tapers down to a normal size stem. Maybe if you wanted to do a shank extension, and you wanted to keep that larger bowl, maybe do a longer bamboo-type extension.

It wouldn't have to be bamboo, but something like that, maybe 1.5 to 3 inches (roughly 40-75 mm) of horn or blonde wood or whatever.

That way, you could eliminate the close-to-but-not-quite contrast between the two woods and also bridge the transition from the massive bowl down to the regular sized stem.

And for the next variation, I think maybe go more bent. You could meet the bowl and shank at almost any angle other than 90 degrees, bend the stem accordingly, incorporate the longer, more contrasted shank extension, and develop something that a lot of guys might want to copy later.

Cheers, and again, welcome to the forum!

[Martianh]

Hi everyone,

thank you for the comments. I must say that this isn't my first pipe, which may have been the impression given by my original post. This is simply my first post on this forum. I don't know why I waited so long to post here. This is a great resource.

Anyway, I have had a lot of comments regarding the mouthpiece and I think I will make a mouthpiece for it that is a bit bent, to see what it would look like. Why not, right? For what it's worth, the mouthpiece is exactly how I envisioned it to be and I am happy with it. We'll see what the owner thinks when he receives it tomorrow. That is the real test, after all.

Regarding the spacer. Pierre, you are absolutely correct, AND I had a beautiful piece of white horn originally on this pipe - I will post the photos when I get home. BUT the stupid horn was too weak/old/thin/Idon'tknow and it split when I put the mouthpiece in it - after it had been buffed, polished, finished. It was very frustrating. I then tried a piece of light cherrywood and it split, too. So I went with rosewood and made it a bit thicker (which I had had experience with and success) and it worked, so I left it. This extension is the 3rd attempt. I would welcome suggestions from anyone about a good, solid, pretty, light (preferably white) wood to use for spacing and shank extension. I have a couple of ideas, but experience is the best test.

Edit: Here are the photos. The horn is obviously the lighter one and the other wood I tried was cocobolo. I also think that I just made them too thin, in which case I should've put some sort of support inside the extension.








The transition from the large bowl to the narrow stem was also intentional. I do agree with you, that it is a bit uncomfortable (for lack of a better word) looking, but it is exactly as I had imagined it and therefore I left it. Again, when the owner gets it, I will know if it was a success or not.

Regarding your comments on the next variation....have you been spying on me? Do you also live in Germany?? When I post the next photos of the next variation, you'll see why I am asking this!!

Thank you very much for your comments. They are duly appreciated.

Cheers
Martin

[pierredekat]

Whew, I was a little bit worried that you might take my critique the wrong way. I am glad that you haven't.

For what it's worth, the mouthpiece is exactly how I envisioned it to be and I am happy with it.

I respect that. Some guys tend to frown on that sort of thing, but I think there is a lot to be said for adhering to an artistic vision. There were probably people looking over Leonardo da Vinci's shoulder telling him to make Mona Lisa smile a bit more, and how wonderful it is that he painted her the way that he did. Men have pondered her curious smile for centuries.

I had a beautiful piece of white horn originally on this pipe - I will post the photos when I get home. BUT the stupid horn was too weak/old/thin/Idon'tknow and it split when I put the mouthpiece in it - after it had been buffed, polished, finished. It was very frustrating. I then tried a piece of light cherrywood and it split, too. So I went with rosewood and made it a bit thicker (which I had had experience with and success) and it worked, so I left it. This extension is the 3rd attempt. I would welcome suggestions from anyone about a good, solid, pretty, light (preferably white) wood to use for spacing and shank extension. I have a couple of ideas, but experience is the best test.

Yes, horn can be quite tricky. The few times I have worked with it, I have always used an ABS (Absylux) plastic core, but I have a few old Danish pipes that were just the horn, and they have survived for decades.

As far as blonde woods are concerned, I would look at what types of fruit or nut woods you can get your hands on.

My wife inherited some land here in Mexico that had dozens of dead apricot trees in a neglected orchard, and I have managed to harvest several hundred pounds (like maybe 200 kilos) of the wood for various projects.

It has a very fine texture, blondy sapwood, with alternating bands of color in the heartwood, and it is stronger than the dickens. I would put it up against the very best hickory for strength.

In fact, I "handled" a set of kitchen knives out of the stuff, and they have held up to literally hundreds of washings and every other kind of abuse imaginable with nary a mark on them.

I would imagine that peach wood, being a close cousin, would be quite similar. Almond is a more distant cousin, but I have a hunch it would hold up well, too.

I also have several pieces of apple and plum wood that I thought about using to make some whole pipes from, and both of those woods seem up to the task.

Olive wood is nice stuff, and I think it has garnered wide acceptance as a "top tier" wood in the pipe community. I wouldn't hesitate to use it for a shank extension.

A lot of fruit and nut trees have nice wood, really. About the only one I'm not terribly impressed with is cherry. It can be quite beautiful, but the cherry I have worked with seemed fairly soft.

Regarding your comments on the next variation....have you been spying on me? Do you also live in Germany?? When I post the next photos of the next variation, you'll see why I am asking this!!

Well, I certainly look forward to the next pictures.

[taharris]

I have run into the same issue with splitting shank extensions.

My solution was to embed a brass tube in the shank.

If you look at pen turning supplies you can find replacement brass tubes for pen making.

These work perfectly and are also sized to a specific sized drill bit.

Drill out a hole for the brass tube in the shank, turn a piece of Ebonite to fit in the brass tube (to make a core), and glue the brass tube and core into your shank. Now you have a very stable core in which to drill the mortise for you stem.

Todd

[DrThunder]

That is really too bad about the horn, I love that extension on that pipe, great pipe overall too.