most smoked shop pipes

[notow1]

As I learn more about making better stems, good drilling, etc, I find some of My shop pipes I smoke more than others. I know this is because My earlier pipes that I thought were "ok" really aren't. As My skills improve My shop pipes get better and I also realize I am happy none of My early pipes got out to the general public. Does Anyone Look at their early stuff and say " I can't believe I thought that was really good"? I now have 4 shop pipes that I find comfortable and enjoy smoking the rest can be made comfortable at a future date. I was just wondering if Everyone preferred the pipes They made as their skills improved and They knew the way a pipe should be made. Norm

[NathanA]

Hopefully, everyone feels that way. If your pipes don't get better over time you're not trying. A great exercise is to look back at older pipes and do some self critique. If you can't look at a pipe you made a few months ago (if you are new at it) or a few years ago (if you have been at it longer) and just rip it to shreds you aren't trying.

[wdteipen]

I kept my very first pipe but never smoke it because the engineering is so bad.

[sandahlpipe]

My first several pipes don't get smoked anymore. They don't look too terrible, but they are monstrously huge, and the stems are massive. I literally had no clue what I was doing. Before I made my first pipe, I had made a couple bookshelves and some carved canoes. I thought I was set for any type of woodworking task. Boy was I ever wrong.

[RadDavis]

As I learn more about making better stems, good drilling, etc, I find some of My shop pipes I smoke more than others. I know this is because My earlier pipes that I thought were "ok" really aren't. As My skills improve My shop pipes get better and I also realize I am happy none of My early pipes got out to the general public. Does Anyone Look at their early stuff and say " I can't believe I thought that was really good"? I now have 4 shop pipes that I find comfortable and enjoy smoking the rest can be made comfortable at a future date. I was just wondering if Everyone preferred the pipes They made as their skills improved and They knew the way a pipe should be made. Norm

I don't know anyone at all who feels this way.

Rad

[Albert.A]

I definitely feel like this. When I look at my first briar pipe, I see a terrible thing that was supposed to be a billiard, and at the time I made it I thought it was. It was perfection in a pipe, and I was fully learned as a pipemaker. Then (thankfully) I found this place! I don't smoke those first few pipes either because they have un-modified premold stems and 16mm tobacco chambers, which in my opinion make them unpleasant to smoke.

Now days I usually feel happy about my pipes for about a day or two after completion, and then I start finding things I wish I'd done better or differently.

/Albert