My second-ever pipe... 34 years after the first one

[LatakiaLover]

I swore I'd never make another after discovering I was sensitive to briar dust. 1979 was the year.

I have no idea what came over me today. I didn't even think about it, just started working, and one step led to the next. Six hours later, here's the result. I'm blaming it on you guys. (never had the urge until posting here a couple weeks ago, anyway)

Still a lot to be done, obviously. An elegant, slender pipe is still hidden "inside" this one, and the peg is currently just a blob, but you get the idea. Thought I'd take a pic and post it because I have no idea when (or if) I'll even finish this. The dust might git me again (so far, so good, I wore a mask but also made a pretty good mess).

The pipe gods were/are toying with me, btw. The damn thing is a flawless, aligned straight grain... except for ONE pit. On top, in plain sight, at the shank/bowl junction. Bastids.

[The Smoking Yeti]

Err... dude, you shoulda just worn a mask 34 years ago and dealt w/ the side effects. This is a nice second pipe!! I can't wait to see 'er finished, don't worry too much about getting that pit out- it looks great regardless!

[archaggelosmichail]

This is going to turn into as awesome pipe.
Great form, nice stem and grain, and you got lucky with no sandpits.

Let us know when it's finished.

Michail

[Sasquatch]

Can't wait to see it once you get that ugly lump ground off the bottom.

[wisemanpipes]

is this gonna be your entry into the KC pipe show?
she looks like a mighty fine yachtsman/cutty/footed dublin/zulu/wow there are alot of names for this shape. gotta step up my design. btw thats a fine stem in the making...i think you might have done a few of them before...
-evan

[LatakiaLover]

Thanks for the kind words.

I just looked at the grain after wetting the wood with a bit of water, and it's better than I thought at first. 360 degree coverage with almost no fall-out. Can't wait to see the finished pipe myself.

As for entering it in the carving contest, that would be, um... awkward. I'm one of the judges. (the other two are Greg Pease and Tad Gage) I might fake-enter it under some BS name just to see what they think of it for real, though. Depends on what the pit does, and if I can resist smoking it until then.

I'm also thinking hard about a shorter stem. The original idea was for it to be a fine-boned, semi-churchwarden sort of thing. Now, I'm liking the idea of just straightening and cleaning up what's there now with a shorter stem to make it a daily smoker. Not as fragile & etc. I guess I'm also worried that removing significantly more wood might uncover more pits. Let sleeping dogs lie, and all that.

What would you experienced carvers do? This is just a lark, and I don't know enough about briar in that way to have an opinion on how risky continuing might be.

[maddis]

Pheww!!! You almost had me selling my tools until I looked at your web page. You know your way around a pipe man. No reason you shouldn't/couldn't be making em'.

All that said, as a life-long allergy sufferer, of a different sort, I getcha.

Then again, something got you curious, no?

[wisemanpipes]

yes that would be an interesting situation. like a gas station clerk winning the lotto...always something fishy.
regardless, i like the sleek look of the pipe as is, but understand that its not a pipe to carry often. as for the briar removal, i think it looks good but then again i need to aleast make decent pipes to voice some briar tutalege.
-evan

[LatakiaLover]

Pheww!!! You almost had me selling my tools until I looked at your web page. You know your way around a pipe man. No reason you shouldn't/couldn't be making em'.

Making pipes and fixing them have less in common than most people think. Different tools, approaches, and mindsets. Trust me, I know embarrassingly little about how to make a pipe from the ground up. All I've got goin' on is knowing what I want to see, and McGuyver-like ability to find or fabricate a tool that will let me achieve it. I don't have a lathe, for example. In fact, I wouldn't know one from a snowmobile. (They sort of scare me---I keep flashing on an image of getting hit in the mouth by a 100 mph block of wood. )

This pipe was made on a drill press, the block was both cut and roughly shaped on a knife grinder, and the rest of the shaping done with a French wheel, Foredom tool, and files. In short, someone like Bruce Weaver or Radney the Davis wouldn't be able to stop laughing if he ever saw me "making a pipe."

Stems? Yeah, I can make stems. That's a weird little specialty, though.

All that said, as a life-long allergy sufferer, of a different sort, I getcha.

Yeah, it affects me like a spritz of pepper spray shot into the room. Too irritating to ignore, but not enough to make me stop if I'm determined to press on. From what I understand such sensitivity only gets worse over time, though, which I why I decided to never make a second pipe.

Then again, something got you curious, no?

It's strange. I'm not really curious, just suddenly felt obligated to try. More like making a pipe for real would make me a better repairman, and a better contest judge. (My first one was a sitter with a plug-in stem, so didn't count in my mind) I doubt I'll ever make another. Too damn messy.

[oklahoma red]

I doubt I'll ever make another. Too damn messy.

Bull Shite I say! Have you not heard of vacuums? Dude, you've obviously got the gift so run with it.
Don't worry about that lump on the bottom, that's just a briar wart. Kinda like the one between Sas's shoulders. It'll fall off on it's own sooner or later.
Chas.

[The Smoking Yeti]

I think you should roll onward with the long stem on this- make it a more special sit down and relax smoker, after all, it's a pipe you made yourself, that should mean it's special!

Also- I think you need to enter it in the contest, it'd be funny for sure!

Get a good dust collection system and make more pipes. Please.

Cheers!

Yeti

[wdteipen]

Wow, very nice! As far as the sand speck, I'd hit just a tad more with sandpaper to see if it's getting bigger or smaller. If you can't get rid of it soon, I think it's small enough and looks to be on the grain where a dark contrast stain would make it less obvious. I'd make it smooth and see how it looks. If it's too obvious you can always blast a smooth finished pipe.

[RadDavis]

Dang, George! Nice job!

What Wayne said.

Rad

[LatakiaLover]

You cant lose what you never had, I suppose.

Kept shaping---decided to split the difference by keeping the long stem and only "semi" slenderizing things---and the speck grew. Then, about 3/8" away from it, another, far worse blemish suddenly appeared and clearly goes deeper than shaping can save. It's a true knot-like crevice-y pit this time.

<--- le pipe gods

Oh well. That's why Alfred invented sandblasting, right?

Still a fair amount of shaping to do (the subtle stuff), and that peg business is a pain, but here ya go. The two profile pics are grainy and dim because I wanted to eliminate as much lens distortion as possible, so stayed several feet away. (Longish straight pipes never look right when shot close up with a point-and-shoot camera.)

[wdteipen]

Bummer. Looks like it will make a really nice sandblast though.

[LatakiaLover]

Finished except for the stem. (Finished as in "ready for blasting")








And this one's for Squatchy:

[LatakiaLover]

Bummer. Looks like it will make a really nice sandblast though.

Yeah, probably a ring grain sort of thing. The whole "geometric purity" of the design depends on clean lines and accuracy to work, though, which blasting will nullify to a considerable degree, but so it goes. Some days you are the match, other days you are the tobacco.

There's a KC club guy who does a lovely weathered-look shallow/Euro blast occasionally on his stuff, and he said he'd give it a shot (har har), so here's hoping for the best. More pics then.