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Is a pipe like this:



drilled downward through the bottom of the bowl, akin to a german clay in design? That is, is it drilled straight through the shank, with a wye shape up into the bowl? Or do you just drill the bowl in until it hits the airway in the shank?

I recently made one for a custom order that wasn't that steeply bent, but after consulting Pipe Sensei Tinsky, I drilled the shank all the way through, then drilled the bowl short, and drilled the bottom of the bowl at 5/32, through to the smoke channel, sort of like a calabash bowl drilling.

Rad

Gotcha. Thanks Rad. So is a guy better off to head directly horizontal out of the bowl or downward a bit? I'm concerned with the thing plugging up if there's a channel heading downward....but I guess there's all kinds of space for stuff to fall down into if need be...

There's no reason that particular pipe cannot be drilled in perfectly conventional fashion. Strictly speaking, if it was a "true" cavalier it would have to be drilled straight down through the shank and then also into the bowl. It would resemble an upside down V rather than a Y. I don't think cavaliers smoke very well to be honest, so I typically make "faux" cavaliers. I'm actually working on one now. Maybe I'll post a shot of it tomorrow.

TJ

This whole "smoke very well" thing is why I'm asking, for sure. I can see a dozen different ways to make it work, but I would like to offer up a pipe that smokes half decent for a change.

Sasquatch wrote:This whole "smoke very well" thing is why I'm asking, for sure. I can see a dozen different ways to make it work, but I would like to offer up a pipe that smokes half decent for a change.

The customer I made one for had bought an estate functional cavalier and liked the way it smoked, so he ordered one from me.

I've never smoked one, but who am I to argue?

Rad

Did your customer have any comments as comparing the two pipes, Rad?

Not so far. I just shipped it to Germany a couple of weeks ago.

Rad

Oh gawd. Imagine a German bubbling over with praise - "This is acceptable."

I used to work with a German carpenter and a German tiler. Big praise from those guys was "Huh. I guess you aren't as stupid as I thought." They take their work seriously, those old schoolers.

Sasquatch wrote:Oh gawd. Imagine a German bubbling over with praise - "This is acceptable."

I used to work with a German carpenter and a German tiler. Big praise from those guys was "Huh. I guess you aren't as stupid as I thought." They take their work seriously, those old schoolers.

My father-in-law, whom I work with, is a German immigrant. It is a constant exercise in 'efficiency'...

I like the pic.

Im thinking about trying a cavalier for my next pipe. Just want to make sure I have the drilling right... Something like this? Thanks for the help. Trey

I've only smoked from a similar style to that once, and my only real complaint was that if you puffed it more than twice in a draw you'd get a bad taste from the smoke lingering in the cavity past the bowl.
But that very well could've been my less than amtateur smoking habits or the cheap tobacco, lol.

I wound up doing one in a Y, drilled back from the bowl to hook up. Smokes good, apparently.
Using that same pic, roughly like this:

Sasquatch wrote:I wound up doing one in a Y, drilled back from the bowl to hook up. Smokes good, apparently.
Using that same pic, roughly like this:

That's how I did the one and only cavalier I've done, and it works perfectly.

I am still confounded how the draft hole from the bottom of the bowl to the draft hole of the shank is drilled, especially with that angle. Is yours done through the shank and then plugged?

bandkbrooks wrote:I am still confounded how the draft hole from the bottom of the bowl to the draft hole of the shank is drilled, especially with that angle. Is yours done through the shank and then plugged?

You go in through the bottom of the bowl.

Yes the angle on my diagram would require a team of Lilliputians. Drill in through the bowl, at whatever angle you feel is appropriate.

Sasquatch wrote:Yes the angle on my diagram would require a team of Lilliputians. Drill in through the bowl, at whatever angle you feel is appropriate.

A Brobdingnagian team of Lilliputians even.

I imagined Mole Men. Perhaps a platoon of trained and obedient termites?