Bent Brandy with Tegua

[calsbeek]

This is a gift for a buddy.
I'd love your criticism, especially because I'm going to try the same shape straight away.
cheers

[Ratimus]

Biggest thing I would change is to try and keep the shank face perpendicular to the line of the shank. There's some other stuff too, but I'm too lazy to add anything other than that.

[sandahlpipe]

Ryan already mentioned the biggest issue. One other thing I'd add is that the bottom view looks like a completely different pipe than the top view. This usually indicates that the shank isn't round if you were to look at a cross-section.

Also, pay attention to the saddle on your stem. You want a clear step, but what you have in this pipe is rounded over.

The bottom line of your shank is weird. Especially the middle of the shank on the bottom looks like a flat line. This is probably why it looks like your stem is stuck in at an odd angle.

Finally, work on making things symmetrical and round. If you look at the picture where you're looking down onto the bowl, you can see how the bowl has uneven bulges especially around the bottom part.

My early work looked a lot like this. It really helped me to get my hands on well-shaped high grades and study them. Looking at pictures of well-shaped pipes helps, but there's no substitute for being able to look at one from every angle.

[calsbeek]

Thanks for this guys
Yeah I've often thought that If I could look at some good pipes I'd probably know better what I'm doing. I live in backwoods nowhere with no pipe shops and I only own one real pipe (a stanwell billiard). So I'm working entirely off photos.

[Ratimus]

Okay, here's some quick'n'dirty photoshoppery to show what I was thinking, and what I believe Jeremiah was talking about. Forgive the part where the shank on the bottom has a chaw taken out of it ; try and pay attention to the overall lines and don't let the crudeness of my presentation overwhelm you.

[calsbeek]

ah yeah, your photoshop skills need work but I see exactly what you mean.

thanks Ryan