Cascara

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:47 pm

Here's my latest. Thanks to Alexander for his tip on rustication. When someone wants an alternative to the deep rustication that the nail tool provides I highly recommend this method. The only thing that I did that varied from Alexander's method was the "beating" of the block.

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 3:52 am

Ben, thanks for the credits. Anyway, how did you vary the beating? No beating necessary at all? If you don't want this thread to focus too much on that, it would be nice, if you would post some of your experience in the original one anyway.

Alex

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:41 am

I don't care... I'll post on both :thumb:

I tried the beating, but it scared the crap out of me 8O ! So instead I tried what, I assumed, would replace that. If the beating caused little grooves to be dug into later (when twisting the rasp) then why not just go over the same place where you twisted the rasp more than once. That way you'd still have a place for the rasp to dig in, it's just the place where you rusticated earlier.

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:19 pm

Ben,

Nice pipe. Two questions for you:

1. Are you cutting your own stems or are they pre-formed?
2. What made you decide on that name for the pipe? To my knowledge, cascara (as in cascara sagrada) is a natural laxative made from the bark of a tree...

:think:

-Scott

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:09 pm

Well it does have this extra addative in the stem... 8O :naughty:

"Cascara sagrada" might be a certain type of "cascara" but the word "cascara" just means peel (sp?) or bark. However, where I grew up (Guatemala) it was slang for helmet. The pipe reminds me of a helmet. That's why I named it that.

I'm not hand cutting stems yet, just mod'ing mine a lot at the bit. Why do you ask?

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:38 pm

LOL! I just did a web search for "cascara" and that was the first thing that came up. I can just see the marketing - "my pipes are the SH*T!"

The stem question, well, I'm not sure where it comes from. To MY eye, and this is only my opinion, and I have only made 7 pipes, and insert any other necessary disclaimer here, the stem seems a little large for the pipe. It's almost in between a regular stem and a churchwarden stem. And the bend seems a little too concentrated in one area (more sudden than gradual).

That being said, I like the rustication and the shape of the bowl. Do you have any shots looking down at the top of the bowl? Also, the transition between the bowl and shank is nice and crisp, something I have for the life of me been unable to accomplish. I am using a sanding drum on a dremel to shape that, so the sharpness of the transition is limited to the diameter of the drum, which is too big to get that nice sharp transition. What do you use to shape that area?

-Scott

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:01 pm

I am using a sanding drum on a dremel to shape that, so the sharpness of the transition is limited to the diameter of the drum, which is too big to get that nice sharp transition. What do you use to shape that area?

-Scott

Scott,
Try to get that very small sanding drum or try brands other than Dremel for bits and things. If it is really tight I use a very small round rasp and file or even needle files.
HTH
-Steve

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:05 pm

Here's a glimpse of the top... the other pics of the top directly came out too fuzzy. I didn't save them.

The stem is a little long, but the pipe (read the bowl) is quite large so I didn't want it to dwarf the stem. I don't think the pipe is over 6 inces. This may be another case of my photography changing the way people view my pipes :think:

I think the thing about the bend in the stem has to do with the angle of the pics. See that last pic in this post? The bend is pretty gradual. It's when the stem is looked at from a higher angle (i think) that it looks like a real sharp bend).

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:40 pm

@ Ben
I must admit, I agree with Scott about the curvature of the stem. The straight line following the shank’s direction seems too long for me, too. The thought of the bend not beeing gradual surely doesn't meen any criticism about having fussed around carelessly while using the heat gun. It's just that it is straight, stays straight, goes on straight even a little further and then – hey, here comes the bending! This gives the feeling of a non gradual bend.
Wasn't there another pipe of yours, where there was the idea of "too much black in the middle part"? I feel a bit with this one, too.

@ Scott:
For the sharp transitions: I start with smaller metal files. We call them key files (key for door key) in GER. I don't know, if these are the "needle files" Steve mentioned. None of their blades is longer than maybe 7 or 8 cm. I have one that is shaped like a triangle. It is not equilateral. Two long sides with structure and the short side blank metal. Using this you can work on one side of the transition (the bowl e.g.) while not digging into the shank and vice versa. Then I move on to those fingernail buffing files talked about somewhere before and deliberately use some carefully folded sandpaper to round any flat surface caused by the flat files.
If you want, I will post a pic of that file.

Alex

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:46 pm

Oh yeah! RE: shank/stummel transition:

I use the disc sander and a 1" x 32" belt sander to get in there. Basically what I do is get the general shape with the disc sander and then smooth things out with the belt sander. The reason being is that the disc on the disc sander is like 1/4" thick so I'd run into the problem your talking about with your sanding drum (I started by using the drum on a dremel). But the belt on my belt sander is only as thick as sand paper. So all I have to do is go slow and focus and I can do exactly what Alexander is talking about but at 3000 RPM's :thumb:

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 4:20 pm

Hey Scott,

I have found the most valuable tool, for me, when it comes to the shank/stummel transition...is a chain saw file. I am not sure, but I think Random provided me with that suggestion some time back.

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:53 am

bscofield wrote:…snip but at 3000 RPM's :thumb:

And that would scare the crap out of me.

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:47 pm

It's not bad once you get used to it... It's just like using any power tool on the pipe that your making.

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 4:25 pm

To be honest: A belt sander (maybe home-grown) with long belts is something I sometimes dream of…
To be even more honest: It's the tool that I like to dream of the most, since I lack almost all tools to make a pipe from block and rod.

:boohoo: