First Curchwarden

[millerman]

Well here's one I've been working on a little at the time. It took a while to get the bottom just right so it would sit up with the stem in it. It was a fun pipe to make. I learn quite a bit on it. During this pipe I got some small files and this one was the first that I did a lot of hand filing on instead of using the dremel bits as much. I think I like hand filing better. The one I'm working on now I'm doing almost entirely with files. As always thanks fer looking and any critiques welcome.

[Literaryworkshop]

If you like working with files, just wait until you get your hands on some good rasps.

Doing a round shape freehand is pretty challenging, as the human eye is pretty good at seeing where a shape is even slightly out of round. Your top profile is very close, but not quite there yet. I also would have tried to make the taper from the shank to the stem more gradual. As it is, the shank is significantly thicker than the stem, then the ring forms a cone, angling down to the thinner diameter of the stem. It would have been better to either make everything the same diameter or try to get it all to taper down more gradually.

[mightysmurf8201]

The bend in the stem is a bit abrupt. I think it would flow better if it were more gradual. When I did my first churchwarden stem, I looked for as many pictures of churchwardens that I could find and found the best bend radius that I thought would work with my pipe and tried to copy that.