At the moment I am busy with these 3 pipes. A cutty, a straight rhodesian and acorn.The shank of the cutty still have to be thinned down towards the stem and will be sandblasted and stained. I love the flowing lines of a cutty, as well as (of course) Zulu shapes. It is quite sad though that most pipesmokers ignore them. The forward canted bowl is off putting to many people and there seem to be the opinion that they would not smoke well. In my humble opinion the opposite is actually true. The forward canted bowl allows for the airhole to finish right in the bottom of the bowl, allowing for a great draw. And there should also be no worries about the tobacco and ash falling out! Do yourself a favour and have a look at them next time you have a bout of PAD.
I've always been fascinated by rhodesians, but for some reason never made any. I don't know if it is a South African thing, but almost all of the old pipesmokers that I grew up with, had either a bulldog or rhodesian in their collection. Most often, rhodesian. This one is a straight, stubby one with the bowl canted forward ever so slightly. The grain is looking good and it will probably end up as a smooth.
I have made a couple of acorn shaped pipes before. This is quite a challenging shape, but also allows for a lot of flexibility. The acorn can be fat and stubby, slim and sharp, or anything in between. The same with the shank. You can have it curved, with reverse taper etc. No wonder pipemakers love this type of pipe. This one is destined to become blasted.
