Pipe #40 for review

[Nick]

LOL! 200? Yea, I can't see myself getting there before I retire.

[KurtHuhn]

I think that right about the 200 mark is when I started to "get it". I know for a lot of makers, that isn't true. Different people's brains are wired differently, and are capable of different things without effort.

For instance, I can pick up a guitar, and reproduce a lot of tunes just by ear - in fact, I can't read sheet music, and guitar tabs irritate me. Meanwhile there are folks that struggle just to hit a simple A Major.

And I can easily examine lines of code in a variety of languages and understand them easily - PHP, shell, awk, Perl, SQL, etc. But if I show any of it to the engineers at work, they get brain freeze.

However, artistic form was something that eluded me for an extremely long time - and I make no claim as to actually understanding it currently. Every now and then a moment of serendipity hits, and my understanding grows. I know what looks good - it's the act of using the various design elements in my own work that I stumble over. I can identify the "new pipe maker" look, and offer suggestions on how to fix it - but only because I was there, I did it, and I'm intimately familiar with the mistakes.

Sometimes I envy these guys like Munkey and Jeff Gracik that burst upon the scene and, seemingly without effort, can create beautiful works of art with (again, seemingly) nothing more than a brief tutelage in an existing pipe maker's shop. It can be frustrating. But it's important to remember, as I said above, everyone's brain is wired differently, and people have different innate talents.

So then I pick up the Les Paul that I made, belt out a crunchy, screaming, blues-heavy Michael Row The Boat Ashore, followed by a heavy metal version of Malaguena, and that usually centers me for a couple days.

[flix]

Thanks for the support, Kurt. Guys like us work very hard and seem to make very slow progress in some areas, like pipemaking. I suppose that if I didn't like it so much, I'd give up.

[KurtHuhn]

if I didn't like it so much, I'd give up.

And that's really one of the most important parts of any undertaking - hobby or otherwise. If, at the end of the day, you had fun doing it, whether you're particularly skilled at it is of little consequence.

Besides, that skill and talent will come with time and practice. It's important not to get too down on yourself.

[Tyler]

I think that right about the 200 mark is when I started to "get it". I know for a lot of makers, that isn't true. Different people's brains are wired differently, and are capable of different things without effort.

For instance, I can pick up a guitar, and reproduce a lot of tunes just by ear - in fact, I can't read sheet music, and guitar tabs irritate me. Meanwhile there are folks that struggle just to hit a simple A Major.

And I can easily examine lines of code in a variety of languages and understand them easily - PHP, shell, awk, Perl, SQL, etc. But if I show any of it to the engineers at work, they get brain freeze.

However, artistic form was something that eluded me for an extremely long time - and I make no claim as to actually understanding it currently. Every now and then a moment of serendipity hits, and my understanding grows. I know what looks good - it's the act of using the various design elements in my own work that I stumble over. I can identify the "new pipe maker" look, and offer suggestions on how to fix it - but only because I was there, I did it, and I'm intimately familiar with the mistakes.

Sometimes I envy these guys like Munkey and Jeff Gracik that burst upon the scene and, seemingly without effort, can create beautiful works of art with (again, seemingly) nothing more than a brief tutelage in an existing pipe maker's shop. It can be frustrating. But it's important to remember, as I said above, everyone's brain is wired differently, and people have different innate talents.

So then I pick up the Les Paul that I made, belt out a crunchy, screaming, blues-heavy Michael Row The Boat Ashore, followed by a heavy metal version of Malaguena, and that usually centers me for a couple days.

Well said.

[Tyler]

Thanks for the support, Kurt. Guys like us work very hard and seem to make very slow progress in some areas, like pipemaking. I suppose that if I didn't like it so much, I'd give up.

I find the learning curve the fun of all of this! Frankly, if I ever "got there" I think pipe making would loose it's fizz entirely. Then it would just be work.

Don't get down. I sure hope that the comments and reviews don't wear you out.

Out of curiosity, have you ever been to the Chicago (or any) show?

Tyler

[Smitty]

Just my $.02 worth but if it were mine I might consider taking out the cracked piece and using a piece of bamboo in it's place. The coloring would contrast enough break it up. I like the look of bamboo anyway, just me though.

[smokepiper]

it must not be the extention that were to long it could been the shank that was to long aswell, if shorter the extention would been better might been a bit to long but better...

[Spence Pipes]

I love the grain. Awsome pipe. Had the problem happend to me, even myself being a quote " newbie", I would of used a bamboo extention. Great job.