Blowfish!?

I have always admired the blowfish as shape: the beautiful flow, graceful and delicate lines. The shape lends itself to the "shape first" way of pipemaking, which I really enjoy.

Although the shape is pretty much set in stone, you can get an amazing variety. From long shanked to more stubby, from intricate grooves and gullies to plain janes, even some with "wings"!

As some of you might know, I am not one for "frilly" pipes. All these ornate pipes with super-dooper triple whammy extensions and curves and wings and etc, just does not do it for me. Mostly, it is too much, looks too busy and distracts from the pipe itself.  

The blowfish for me sort of falls into this "fancy" category. It's got lines and curves that need to be in harmony. Not easy. I have been wanting to try my hand at one for a very long time, but felt that I needed to develop my skills more before I do. But eventually I succumbed. I got hold of a block and just could not help myself.

I learned a lot from this pipe, made some silly mistakes and some really stupid mistakes. But I will be back with more. What an intriguing, fascinating and wonderful shape!

Freehand?!

My Longman dictionary say the following:

free-hand drawn with your hand and a pen or pencil

Now I suppose the fathers of the English language did not necessarily smoke pipe (if not, they should have!) and that they therefore would not have thought of pipes when deciding on the meaning of this word, but what is a freehand pipe?

 Since starting with pipesmoking many moons ago, learning bit by bit and then getting into the making as well, this "shape", if you can call it that, has puzzled me. 

If a customer asks for a freehand, I get cold fever, my eyes glaze over and knees buckle,making me frantically grab my whisky glass to go pour another. The thing is, if you ask a hundred pipesmokers, well, you are going to get a hundred and one answers.

For most oldtimers (and even some younger smokers) the above pipe is a freehand. For me the old "danish style" freehand from the 70's. It usually was made from plateaux, normally didn't have any significant  grain, with a bit of bark on the the end of the shank and most of the time on the rim as well. It also was quite normal to sport a "fancy" stem with rings and whatnot. Most of the ones I have seen are sandblasted as well.

For other smokers, the term freehand refers to freehand drilling. This is where the pipe is shaped first, then drilled freehand. Any of the standard shapes can theoretically be made using this method, along with more unconventional shapes. Should a freehand-drilled and a lathe-drilled pipe be put next to each other though, there will be no way you would be able to differentiate which is which. This type of thought would be the younger generation of smokers. Most are using the Internet extensively, so they would have exposure to freehand drilling from some of the high end makers.

Then there are the pipe smokers for whom freehand refers to a non-standard shape. These would be more "organic" free flowing forms that might (or might not) follow the grain of the wood. For some smokers even an amorphous raw block with basically just the edges taken away, could be termed a freehand.

Now what does a pipe maker have to do when asked for a freehand? He asks for an idea, a pipe the person related to, a sketch, basically anything that will push him in a direction. That helps.
It also helps if it is a returning customer and you have an inkling of the customer's taste in pipes.
But then the most dreaded of replies also happen. That is when the customer answers: Surprise me. Just make a freehand.

On the bench

I haven't done a billiard in a very, very long time. Not because I do not want to and not because I do not like them, but purely because for me to see a billiard in a block of briar, is a nearly impossible task! Block after block I see pipes with wonderful curves. 

 The biliard is one helluva shape, with proportions that seem quite easy, but deceivingly so. Bowl height should be more or less the length of the shank, the bowl should be round and slightly fatter around the middle, the bowl should be canted forward ever so slightly, shank and stem should taper a tad, etc. Exactly because of these definite guidelines, a billiard is very good exercise in pipemaking.

This one is in the final finishing. It has been sanded to 400 grit and a couple of tweaks here and there might still occur. The stem inserts are briar, an stem and shank adornment that I think is grossly underestimated. At the moment (and that might differ from tomorrow!) I see the pipe in a reddish stain, with the stem inserts in some contrasting colour.

Tamp!

I am normally not big on tampers. In fact, I often find that I have to remind myself when in company to use one!

 But in this case I thought that a tamper would supplement the pipe.

 The tamper has kudu horn as tip, an acrylic black ring and briar at the front.

For a first tamper, not too bad, hey!

My little heaven

I have had a couple requests lately from friends asking to show them what my shop look like. For me it's not the "Shop". This is my little part of heaven. This is where I forget about the worries, stress and problems of living a normal life in a normal world. This is where I loose myself and time disappear.
Enjoy!

Most of my time making pipes is spent here, at this table. From designing and drawings, through to sanding and staining and everything else inbetween. I have my old radio close by, inherited from my aunt and always tuned to a station playing classical, jazz and blues. Files, stem inserts and little bobs and ends for stems on the right. Stains and more bits and pieces in front, along with different grits of sandpaper. On the left bamboo, ebonite rods and more magic potions. Basically all needed for finishing.

I am not very fond of using the term "station". For some reason it reminds me of a factory, and my pipemaking is not at all close to that. I normally work in no apparent order, with a bit of sanding on the disc, then a bit of lathe work, then filing a stem, etc. Basically, I suppose for want of a better word, erratically!

Above photo is where I do most of my machine sanding. On the left is a slack sander with 400 grit belt, used for finish sanding, but before hand sanding. The motor in the middle is for rough shaping with 24 grit and the one on the right for 60 grit and 240 grit. I also have a jacobs chuck attached to this one, which is handy for freehand drilling, countersinking and so on.

 My trusty old lathe and bandsaw.
The lathe is an Emco, which I picked up for dirt cheap. All the attachments, chisels, cutters, chucks and etc thrown together would be worth 10 times more than what I paid for the lathe itself.
The bandsaw is an updated one from the dilapidated one that I started off with, compliments from a good friend who wanted a couple of pipes.

 When I started making pipes, I had a drillpress. And that was the sumtotal of my electric tools. Its amazing what can be done with a single tool if you put your mind to it! Nowadays I of course use it much less, but I can't imagine not having one. There is always something that it'll be used for.
The small bench/beltsander I use for squaring blocks and occasionally for stemwork.

Last but not least: my briar faerie!

Stemwork Part 3 - Finishing

This is where I finished last time. The rod was rough-sanded and filed, and checked with a small square to keep it straight from tenon to tip. The button also have not been worked on yet.
Just by the way, most pre-formed tapered stems will not have a straight line from tenon to bit.
Now I will start working the button. First it is rough shaped on the 25mm beltsander and then fine tuned with files and nailfiles, until I'm satisfied with the shape.

Then the rest of the stem follows. Depending on the condition of the stem at this stage, I start with sanding in either 220 or 320 grit. If I did the job well, most cases will start with 320 and then work up towards 400 grit. Sanding above 400 grit is a waste of time, because the tripoli I use (and most other guys, I think) have a grit of 400.

For the 5mm or so just in front of the button, I use nail boards. Just with sandpaper you just can't get that bit sufficiently smoothed.

And here is the stem just before polishing. Every millimeter has been sanded and smoothed. Ebonite is a bit of a bugger and polishing might just reveal a little scratch or indentation that was missed, and it might just be that you have to go back and repeat a step or two.

Final wax with carnauba and a clean wheel and that is it!

Stemwork Part 2 - Rough shaping

Last time we finished with the drilling done and the airway polished. This time the post is about rough shaping the stem. Again, I do not propose this to be the "right" way, I'm merely showing what works for me!
In the first step, I take the stem to a sanding disc, where I'll start with 60 grit and get the taper (i.e. on a tapered stem) and rough shape going. This will be followed by a 220 grit disc.
How do you like that button?
That was the easy bit. Now the elbow grease starts. First I use a very rough file to get the shape more defined. I'll also do a rough-over of the stem/shank joint, to get it smoothed. And I'll also work up the shank towards the bowl a bit.

Then I move onto the bit side, thinning the bite down, while also keeping in mind that the top and bottom of the taper have to form a straight line.

File work, lots of file work and then filing, filing and some more filing!

Next the button will be thinned down. In this step it is important to use an edge-safe file, of course. It's happened quite often that I have the file the wrong way around! So take care and double-check yourself.

When everything is more or less roughly the way I would like the end product to be, I'll have a look at the thickness of the bit. Sanding and final finishing will still remove a couple of microns. I normally at this stage like to have the bit thickness by at least 4mm, but preferably a tad less.

I know these couple of photos and bit of text only gives you the rough idea, so please feel free to contact me should there be any questions.

Next we will be looking at final sanding and finishing.