First pipe - Osage orange

[Jthompson1995]

Another newbie here. I figured I'd show my first pipe in my first post on the forum.

It is osage orange that I harvested a few years ago, drilled on the wood large. I was trying for a Zulu shape and think I got pretty close. The shank is shorter than it probably should be but that was due to the size of the original block I started with. The stem is hand cut acrylic (from a pen blank) with a delrin tenon. Stem rings are African blackwood, scrap acrylic and white guitar pick. I was going to have two scrap acrylic rings but he other did not survive drilling . About 6" long overall with a 3/4" by 1 1/2" chamber, drilled with a round nose router bit.

I had thought the cracks you see on the bottom of the stummel would sand out, which they did, but they came back. They do not go through to the bowl (yet at least). Please ignore the dings on the top of the bowl. I took it to work to show and of course it fell out of my jacket pocket to the asphalt as soon as I opened the door. The stem fits looser than I was hoping but it holds ok. I really need to spend more time sanding and buffing the acrylic on the next one, though. Overall I am pleased with it being my first pipe.













Sorry for the lousy pics, my photo tent has no place to be set up right now for proper pics

I learned quite a lot rom this first pipe and have already started on my next, cherry this time. I figure I'll get the workings of drilling down on wood I already had before dishing out for some briar. After the cherry I have a walnut with awesome grain, three more Osage and two olive already marked for drilling. Thanks to everyone here for the storehouse of information you have shared. Please let me know your honest opinion. I'm a big boy, I can take it.

[Sasquatch]

Well it's a good first for sure. I think the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to shank adornment is probably not the best, but at this stage, practicing drilling and mounting is probably more important than hitting artistic peaks. Your curve on the stem is nice and it flows into the bowl well.

Your wood must be a bit wet or something to be cracking like that as you work it? Briar really truly is not all that expensive.

[wisemanpipes]

i second sas on the briar thing. check out alexander zavvos on ebay for some very cheap briar. most of his stuff works out to be under 5 bucks a block.
i think im most impressed with your stem!

evan

[Literaryworkshop]

It looks a lot better than my first pipe!

I think the shape is really well done, overall. You have a good eye for shape. The stem is well-done, too. Has it been smoked yet?

I definitely understand wanting to practice on whatever wood you have available, and it will serve you well.

[Jthompson1995]

Thanks for the critiques everyone. I did get to smoke the pipe once this weekend. Seemed ok but it was my first time smoking anything so I don't have anything to compare to. I thought the bowl might be a little large in diameter in relation to the rest of the pipe.

Still working on pipe #2, a slight bent squat brandy in cherry. I also ordered some briar fron zavros. Thanks for the info, I had not seen briar that inexpensive that I could get some practice on.

[phmann]

Someone's done some research...