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Sometimes you get a piece of briar that might make a decent pipe, but it's cut crooked compared to the grain. The best cutters get this right more often than not, but no one is perfect. So here's a crooked lump of a block, with the grain quite obviously running at about 15 degrees to the current cut.



It's kind of hopeless - big chunk off the bottom, plateaux at a ridiculous angle...



So let's run it through the saw at 15 degrees and see what happens




The slice that comes off exhibits poor looking grain on the outside -



but on the "angled" side of the cut, the cut now being parallel to the briar, the grain on the same piece is outstanding




more to come in a sec

So we have the angle we want - now I'll reset the saw at 0 degrees and use the freshly cut side as the new "square" side.

Set up a false fence to cut through, keeps the briar stable. Now I have it cut side down and will take the bottom of the block off at the new angle.



Done that:



Now just knock off that other angled side, the leaning Block of Pisa will be no more.



And now I have a block that might in fact generate a nice looking pipe. Notice how much better the grain on the cut block is than what was being displayed originally!




Pretty good on all sides now - cleaned up the front face, square now





Oh and here's a little dog taking a bath with his tennis ball. It's awful hot here right now.

Jeepers Mr. Sassafras, if you simply shaped, then drilled, you wouldn't have to go through all that cutting and stuff.
Did you get Pohldancers bits?

I didn't, probably shoulda. But you'll die fairly soon so there'll be an extra set around, yeah??

On the off chance that someone wanted to cut a shape on a lathe rather than freehand, re-orienting a block is handy.

Wait a minute... am I justifying myself to you?

Nice looking doggies there... seems I've met one of them before.

Nice tutorial on squaring a block up with the grain... only problem I see with this is now everyone will think you're highly skilled instead of a pipe making jedi. #CurtainPulledBack

Or, you could have a special chuck made that allows you to tilt a block and save the risk to your fingers.

Seriously though, you turned a crappy block into an outstanding block. You'll have to post pics of the pipe you make out of it.

What's the practical limit on your chuck, Wayne? Could you get 15 or 20 degrees out of it?

Nicely done. I'd post a photo session of how I do the same thing but it'd be pointless... I clean up my blocks... with my MIND.

Mr. Squatch,

You need to clean that bathtub.

Hope this helps.

Rad

Good eye, Rad.

RadDavis wrote:Mr. Squatch,

You need to clean that bathtub.

Hope this helps.

Rad

Its just dirty cuz Sas took his annual bath. Gotta wait for warm weather.

Sasquatch wrote:What's the practical limit on your chuck, Wayne? Could you get 15 or 20 degrees out of it?

Depends on the width of the block. With my current chuck and a two inch wide block I'd guess I could cant it as much as 20 degrees or so but I've never had to cant one that far. I'll have to check it out tomorrow to see how far I can cant it.