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To leave this pipe with the shank shaped as is???











A mistake on my part rough shaping on the lathe forced me to narrow the bowl at the top more than I had planned. Now I'm concerned that if I narrow the stem and define the bowl/shank junction, it would look awkward and bring more attention to the fact that the shank is now too long (IMO I may be wrong on that point) for the pipe, but would eliminate the flaw on the left side. I cannot shorten the shank any, as I already left the mortise short to better drill the draft hole. I can remove quite a bit of material from the bottom of the shank, the top can have a little taken off, but pretty much should stay as is.

So I guess my question is will it be best to finish this as the bastard love child between a Dublin born, Calabash growing, father and an Eskimo, horn playing mother, or can I finish this as the Rhodesian I started it to be without it looking like the plastic bubble pipe on a straw I broke when I was 4 years old?

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Don

the natural flaw is kind of a shame .. but beyond that, i like the shape you have there. like it alot actually.

you do have just a little bit of a lump just behind the bowl though.

The shank looks pretty good, and the bowl looks pretty good at the top. Lower down, the bowl seems to just morph into the shank. The two just don't go together real well.

The shank can stand to lose a lot of weight, and it looks like you can take a lot off of it from the bottom and sides without disturbing the flow of the shape. A bit should come off the top also right where it joins the bowl.

You should also carve some cheeks on the bowl from the excess shank material on the bottom.

Rad

A dangerous mix of bulldog and horn....

I'd say that shank is too fat - the bowl shape is lending itself to a pretty delicate pipe, lest it look like a little bowl sitting on a big tree branch.

Often the best pipes we make are pipes in which we are correcting mistakes as we go along.

Thanks to those who took time to reply. I suppose I knew all along the stem needed a lot of trimming, and posted out of frustration, and looking for a kick in the ass not to take the easy way out. I have been working at it a little at a time (busy at work along with a few other things going on right now), but will post pictures when it's finished. Thanks again for the help, and hope to talk with some of you in Chicago this weekend!

Yea, lose some of the weight, and it should be pretty.

I dont always resurrect 2 year old posts, but when I do its because they make me LOL, OMG and WTF.

Hope this helps,
Ryan

Alden wrote:I dont always resurrect 2 year old posts, but when I do its because they make me LOL, OMG and WTF.

Hope this helps,
Ryan

Reading through the thread, everyone stays so straight faced that I find myself wondering if those pictures used to be of a pipe!

I had the same thought Uber. I kept wondering if there was something wrong with my eyes

As usual, I agree with Rad's assessment. Not a bad looking pipe. Next time make sure to sand out the tobacco chamber.

wdteipen wrote:As usual, I agree with Rad's assessment. Not a bad looking pipe. Next time make sure to sand out the tobacco chamber.

As usual, I agree with Wayne. Also, I think the stem might be a touch long for the shank - maybe that's just me though?

Understand that I'm still new at this..... But the 5th time you read the whole post seems to be the funniest of them all. After that, you start getting into diminishing returns.

Methinks Mr. hammer8 has fucked up his source for the pipe pics.

Hope this helps.

Rad

I just took a look at the date stamps at the bottom of the pictures. Most of them are from AFTER the original post. Awesome though, for sure.

LexKY_Pipe wrote:Often the best pipes we make are pipes in which we are correcting mistakes as we go along.

LexKY_Pipe's post was developed an extra dose of poignancy in the two years of aging and intermediate picture swapping.

I don't get some of the comments to this thread. Okay, so I commented on a pipe from a zombie thread but what gives?

Yeah, well, I do a LOT of digging through archives here. Was studying up on bulldogs, and this post came up in the search. I'm pretty sure his picture posting wires got crossed, but the comments just made me laugh my butt off. "Bastard love child " "Needs to lose some weight" "the bowl just seems to morph into the shank" etc.
Then theres the excellent profile shot, different angles of the pipe, and even one standing on its head
I cant tell you how many old posts I want to comment on, but this one I couldnt leave alone.