My first pipe, a poker (work in progress)

[nicfargo]

Hey everyone, longtime lurker here, finally decided to jump in and get my feet wet. Got a kit from Mark Tinskey and decided last night to start cutting and shaping. With this first pipe, I wanted to do everything by hand, no power tools. So far so good. Used a coping saw and rasp and some files to shape it. Still have a long way to go, but it's getting there. I originally wanted a flat, 90 degree, poker, but the ebaucheon was cut in a way that wouldn't allow for it, so there is an angle to the bottom. Guess I got a taste of what is meant by working around the flaws of the wood on my first pipe. Had a lot of fun smoking, listening to music, and turning a square block of wood into a round smoking device. It's no Bo Nordh, but maybe after making a few hundred of these, I'll be ok at it. All comments welcome, even brutal ones

I also recorded the whole thing. Hope to have that available sometime in the next week.

Thanks for looking!

-Nic

The photos aren't great, just taken with my iPhone...terrible white balance, I swear my life is not this yellow!

[The Smoking Yeti]

Very good! Where teh shank meets the bowl, make sure you take enough off. You don't want that top line to have such a soft slope. Also, you need to do the final shaping with the stem attatched- don't forget to put it back on

Very good! I look forward to seeing it finished!

[nicfargo]

Thanks for the pointers Yeti! Yeah, I definitely need to bring the wood down where the shank meets the bowl.

Unfortunately the stem that this one came with doesn't really match the typical poker, and it wont be flush with the stem (it is more of a freehand style stem). I think I will make a new stem for it at some point, and maybe just leave it unfinished until I can get my hands on a vulcanite blank. Where is a good place to purchase blanks from?

Thanks,

Nic

[Leus]

Pipemakers emporium sells in small quantities.

That pipe surely looks like a good start. It is quite symmetrical which is nice. Now you have two choices, either try to make it as good as you can (this means no "freehand" stem which is almost guaranteed to look like crap on this shape) or just try to finish it and start the next. Either way is a good one. Most people advocate making as many pipes as you can.