Dublin? Sitter...

[JMG]

Finished this one up today. Though after buffing I found all sorts of little areas that need addressing.The "art of the button" eludes me. I really hate having to shape them. This was my first time doing a delrin tenon...much better results this time. Without a lathe my tenons never left me with a good stem/shank junction, but this time it was pretty decent. The bottom of the stummel that it sits on was a pain in the butt to keep round, but I was fairly pleased with how it came out. Unfortunately, I drilled the chamber at a highter rpm than I should have and it scorched the walls (can I just call it "seasoned"?) Anywho, critiques/advice are greatly appreciated.

[sandahlpipe]

It looks pretty nice. I can see a little bit of roughness between stem and shank. I'm guessing the shank face isn't polished. (There's a thread on the forum on polishing the shank face that I'd recommend reading.)

The other thing that jumps out is that there is a light spot right on the edge of the rim in a couple places. You probably sanded or buffed a little too aggressively on those areas.

Good work so far. Keep on making them!

[JMG]

Thanks for the advice Jeremiah. Would you happen to know the name of that thread?...I can't seem to find it.

[wdteipen]

You find out pretty quickly how symmetrical your shaping is when you flatten the bottom of a sitter. The minor things that Jeremiah point out plus the slot could use a little tidying up and polishing. The only other thing I see might be improved is the underside of the stem could use more material removed in the middle where it bends. It's hard to really tell because the side shot isn't a straight on profile shot. Nice work especially given your limited tooling. Oh and you can just market the scorched chamber as your proprietary precarbon bowl.

[sandahlpipe]

Here's the thread on shank faces. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9796&hilit=Polishing+shank+face

[socrates]

Nice!

[JMG]

Thanks Jeremiah. I will definitely try to implement some of that on my next pipe. I appreciate you hunting down the thread for me.

Wayne, you right about the stem. Things didn't go well for me with it all when it was time to bend. I had a difficult time getting things to heat evenly since one end is so thick. I think I should have heated just the thicker part and let the thinner end catch the heat from that.

[wdteipen]

When you bend stems you slightly stretch the upper surface and material compresses on the lower surface of the bend. The result is a very slight thickening of the underside of the bend. A bent stem almost always looks better if you remove material on the underside after the bend. Once you get good enough you can remove it before the bend by anticipating how much you need to remove ahead of time. It also helps to refine the upper part of the stem with sandpaper to smooth out the line. One trick I use to keep the bend smooth is to pull on the bit end slightly as you bend it. That helps keep abrupt bend and kinks from occurring. Tapered bent stems shouldn't just be a straight tapered stem with a bend in it if that makes any sense.

[wdteipen]

Here's an example (albeit not a great one because the photo isn't a straight on profile shot but you get the idea.)

Dunhill bent stems are notoriously fat especially on their prince shape because they make a tapered stem then just put a bend in it.

Before:


After:


While my edited version isn't perfect because it doesn't blend well at the shank, you can see how much more graceful it can look with more material taken off the bottom than the top.

[JMG]

This is a big help. Thanks Wayne.