New Pipes

[brurobas]

Good afternoon,

Here are some pipes i finished in the last couple of weeks:

Natural Smooth Pot





"Scarface"





Rusticated Bent Apple






I would really appreciate your opinions.

Regards,

Bruno

[d.huber]

That rusticated apple is the absolute best pipe I've seen you make so far. Great job!

To that pipe specifically, the stem looks very fat before it begins to taper, most likely due to the thinness of the shank where it was rusticated. If you had the taper start where the stem meets the shank you'd have a sharp lookin' pipe.

Overall, I'd say your shaping has improved dramatically. Sorry to say, but scarface should've been rusticated. Even with partial rustication, you could've kept the name and hidden those flaws. The grain is lovely, but those flaws are really unsightly.

[d.huber]

Oh yeah, you could also take Todd Johnson's advice on rustication, which is significantly better.

While we're on the subject of rustication, let me offer one piece of advice that I think is very important for anyone wanting to make pipes professionally. If you're going to rusticate a pipe, rusticate the whole thing. There is nothing that will strike collectors as being more amateurish than partial or "spot" rustication on a pipe. Of course, I'm not talking about a smooth top or bottom (on a Poker say), but rather about random patches of rustication while the rest of the pipe is smooth. I know it's hard to cover up the beautiful grain on the left side just because the right side is smattered with pits, but you'll be better served by distinguishing sharply between smooth and rusticated pipes. That is not to say that some people don't like the sort of backwoods rustic look, but it's a decidedly smaller contingent of collectors who will go in for something like that FWIW. There are noted exceptions to this like, for instance Trever's Halloween pipes, but as a geneal rule . . .

I think you've pretty much always done this when you rusticate, and I think that's good.

[Sasquatch]

What happened to make the natural pot sort of black in spots - is it picking up dark bits from silicon carbide or is it a weird piece of wood? I started buying blue sandpaper because the black sili-carb automotive wet/dry 600 would stain stuff. Totally like the pipe, and I like wide, shallow "potty" pots like that.


The second pipe I hope is a shop pipe - shaped well and good practice, but that kind of curing flaw is a garbage-bin thing in my opinion. Good to practice on, but don't get involved in selling pipes where your briar is doing that.

[brurobas]

Thank you for your words guys.

What happened to make the natural pot sort of black in spots - is it picking up dark bits from silicon carbide or is it a weird piece of wood? [/i].

I guess it was all due to the staining and polishing process. I had stained it Bucksin over Black but i didn't like how it looked and i sanded it again. Also, the wood was a little on the "light" side.

As for "Scarface" i didn't rusticate it because i really liked the grain and since i was going to keep it for myself i decided to leave it like that, with it's scars open and visible.