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I was thinking about this year's PITH trade and decided I had better practice making some bulldogs. I was wondering what you guys thought about the proportions of a proper English bulldog. I own three bulldogs, a basket pipe, a peterson 150, and an Ashton Sovereign (of of my prized pipes). The Ashton and the basket bulldog have bowl that is slightly canted forward. The pete is straight up and down (at least to my eye). Also, is the ratio of stem to stummel length about the same as a billiard? What do you guys think?

I've got a few designs drawn up so I'll be working on them over the next couple of weeks.

To me, and possibly only to me, the Peterson bulldogs are generally a little fat in shank compared to the bowl size.

Dunhill and Charatan's seem more in proportion to me:

http://mkelaw-pipes.com/html/pipee1400.html


The stem length is always longer then the bowl height (from top of stem) - seems to be about equal to the bowl height measured from the "midline" of the diamond shank.

This gives them a low-slung, macho appearance, which of course, is what bulldogs are all about.

Well I finished roughing out my first bulldog. I should be finished with it soon. I'll post pic in the gallery at such time.

I found the bulldog shape to be especially challenging. I've never done a pipe with a diamond shank or the beads running around the bowl. While there are a lot of things I would change about it, for my very first bulldog I'm pretty pleased.

As a side note, I've also finished up my first pipe made out of plateau briar from PME. Pictures coming soon.