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Just finished this up today, still planning on adding a bowl coat. Those sand pits suck, but I didn't have the heart to rusticate the thing.

Anyway, I usually don't post stuff for critique since I have a nearly crippling sense of perfectionism and if I can already see so many flaws in my own work, what's the point of posting? But here's a pipe I like the look of, and it's been a while, so I figured I'd post it here.

The Underbender invasion has reached Arizona. (Nuke the place from orbit... It's the only way to be sure.)

Lest you forget why I moved here in the first place...

http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/ekv/

LatakiaLover wrote:The Underbender invasion has reached Arizona. (Nuke the place from orbit... It's the only way to be sure.)

I think I fixed it. Is this better?

Nay, nay... it needs more, not less. (An English pipe with a Danish-bent stem is an abomination)

As for Raytheon & Co., they are nothing compared to a pissed off Sigourney Weaver. The ProperBenders WILL prevail.

Oh, you mean like this:

It seems that you are not approaching this subject with the required seriousness. Underbending has been known to make pipe smokers go blind, and shatter B&M display cases from sheer proximal hideousness. There's nothing funny about it.

Don't make me call His 900 Poundedness, the Lord High Sas-Squisher into this. He deals with periscope stem lovers most harshly.

All kidding aside, I've tried bending this stem at a whole range of angles and this is the one that I find most pleasing. I'm open to putting a little more bend on it, but it really looks funny to me bent any more than this. I'd rather think one way, do it that way, be dead wrong, and learn from my mistakes than to pretend I know what I'm doing and follow a rule when I really can't see the logic behind doing it that way. Does that make sense? I'd rather be an idiot, do idiotic things, and get smarter through experience than to pretend to be smart while secretly staying an idiot the whole time.

Here it is with a bit more bend on the stem, which I can live with. It's growing on me, but I still prefer it slightly less bent. Anybody else care to weigh in so this isn't just a couple of curmudgeons going back and forth?

The most recent pic is a significant improvement. The main thing now is the contour of the bend. The angle of the bite zone in relation to the bowl rim is about right. Too much of the bend occurs exactly where the left edge of the tan stripe in the photo "passes through" the stem, though, and the stem seems to start arching over as soon as it leaves the shank which creates an overall flattened look.

Straighten out the exit and shift the "elbow" of the bend more toward the bowl, and you'll be as good as the stummel will allow, I think. (It can't ever be spot-on, visually, because there's some meat missing between the end of the shank and the lowest point at the bottom of the bowl that gives the shank a bit of flare, resulting in a "thin spot" in the profile that confuses the eye regarding the shank's centerline.)

Overall the pipe isn't bad at all, though. It's a difficult shape to get right. I'm sure you're keeping track---what number is it?

I think the original stem bend was fine. I know George makes an underbent stem a personal peeve, but I think the bigger deal is the bottom line of the shank. You want the bottom line should swoop lower, which is to say that the top line of the shank and the bottom line should be parallel while your bottom line gets narrower towards the bowl. Dropping that line just a couple of millimeters would make the stem at its current bend look more pleasant.

Thanks for the input. I'll keep fiddling with the bend. I know exactly what you mean about the shank. I feel like the bottom of the bowl might actually be a bit low, and the missing meat is on top of the shank. Rectifying that would push the shaping a bit more Danish I believe, to which my eye trends to be drawn.

I honestly have no idea what number this is, but I've been making pipes for almost two years and am just now feeling I've reached a level where I wouldn't feel totally guilty unleashing my stuff on the world. Dan at americanpipemakers.com has been kind enough to agree to sell a few of my pipes (including this one) on his website, which would mean it's my first time selling my work to anyone other than friends and family. So maybe it's public pipe (enemy) number one.

sandahlpipe wrote:I think the original stem bend was fine.

Lieutenant Ripley, please prep a photon torpedo for Earth surface delivery, the state of Minnesota. Some of the virus has been detected there. It must not be allowed to spread.

Yeah. However you want to express it, that's getting at the same thing. I think this is a sellable pipe as long as the internals are good. Good for you to wait on selling until you're ready.

I like it, the pits would have made me blast it though. Stem work looks good, I don't mind the under bend, it's bot exactly a classic English after all with that shank style.

Jeremiah, thanks. If I had my druthers I'd probably wait another year before I started selling, but then I'd want to wait another year after that. I know my stuff is at least better than most factory pipes I've seen, so I figured that's a decent place to start. I'm not going to get any better without more practice, which means more materials, and I can't just keep sinking money into this forever. Don't get me wrong; I didn't decide to start selling for monetary reasons, but I need to start eventually and I decided now is the time.

Chris, I would love to have blasted this, but the blast setup has to wait until we own our own home and can run 220 service to the garage for the compressor. I know there are folks that would blast it for me, but I just couldn't put my own name on a pipe on which somebody else is responsible for so much of the visual impact.

Send your pipe to an address near Jeremiah. Looks like George is getting a blast ready. You could always say the pipe is a collaboration

Photon rustication. I like it.

kamkiel wrote:Send your pipe to an address near Jeremiah. Looks like George is getting a blast ready. You could always say the pipe is a collaboration

Now that's some serious pragmatism, right there. You'll do well in China.