Billiard #1

[pmbattles]

Ok so here is my first attempt at a billiard. I did finish it once, then I started reading on this forum and realized I was an idiot. So I tried to rework it towards a billiard.

Things I learned...
1. I love making pipes, I don’t know what it is about it, but I love it.
2. Have a plan first.
3. Once you think you have sanded it thoroughly…get a new piece of paper and sand it again.
4. Realize that you can’t make a perfect pipe your first time…accept it, be proud of it, and get excited about pipe #2.

Self critique…
Here are a few things I noticed as I sat down and looked at it once I was done.
1. From the top of the bowl to the top of shank is about 1/4in. shorter than the bowl to them stem.
2. Space between shank and stem.
3. Chamber doesn't cant forward at 2-3 degrees. (Drilled the holes before I had a plan!)
4. Bowl is asymmetrical. When looking at it from the bottom the left side seems more oblong while right is more rounded.
5. Draught hole is not centered with chamber.
6. Chamber did not reach the bottom of my draught hole.

Thanks in advance for any comments and critiques. Hopefully I can make a few more of these before PITH in July, which I am really excited and extremely nervous about. Also the pics aren’t great, I am not to good at photos, so if I need to provide a better pic just let me know.

[DocAitch]

Looks good for a first effort especially if you did your own drilling.
Study a commercial billiard ( even a basket pipe will give you a good idea of what I am saying below)
Your shank/ bowl transition is not crisp. The shank should be near cylinder ( tapering slightly toward the stem junction) and should mate with bowl with just a small radius. The mating is a little tricky because the shank has to merge with the hemispherical portion of the bowl. As an exercise, make a cylinder of cardboard and cut it to mate closely with the 1/2 of a tennis ball or the top of a light bulb or some similar spherical shape.
The shank line wavers up and down at both top and bottom. Check it out with a straight edge. Once you have your general shank shape ( that slightly tapered cylinder above), long file strokes which continue down the stem will help with the wavering and help to make the shank/stem appear as a continuous shape (which is desirable). Check it against a straight edge frequently.
The bottom profile of the shank should continue to the mid portion of the bowl hemisphere (the South Pole), then the line of bowl should should curve upward with the radius of the hemisphere . No part of the bowl should be lower than the bottom line of the shank.
The 'chin' of the bowl is too sharp. Again think of the bottom 1/4 or so of the bowl as a hemisphere.
Don't worry about the exact proportions for the bowl height vs the shank length and the cant of the bowl just yet. When you get things looking better, then work on those details.
Hope this wasn't too wordy to be of help.
DocAitch