Back in the saddle!

I've spent the past few days working on a long-stemmed Belge. The shank is fairly thin and finely textured, the bowl smooth. I think it has the potential of being a real beauty, but at this stage the grain is just starting to come out so it's anybody's guess.

Before that, I spent a couple days on a Prince then lost it to a large sandpit -- an unusual occurrence, I've only been losing about 1 block in 20 to flaws in the briar.

And before that (shudder) I spent almost 2 weeks solid looking for the best way to reliably form and bend polycarbonate. I've tried a lot of methods from a heat-gun to a Frankenstein'ed toaster-oven, only to decide that without two digital temperature sensors and temperature control circuitry, the best method is a propane torch. Low light conditions help tremendously.

No doubt people wonder why I spend all this time and effort screwing around with "exotic" stem materials. The anwer to that is pretty simple, the traditional materials don't meet min-spec in my book. There's a lot of work that goes into making a decent hand-cut stem, and if I'm going to that much trouble I want a result that I can feel good about. Making stems out of vulcanite seems to me like carving a canoe paddle from soap, and making stems out of acrylic (though it is easy to bring to a glossy finish) seems to me like making a hammer from glass.

In any case, it's good to be working on the finishing stages of a pipe again. When I began making pipes, everything was a struggle except the shaping part (which I wasn't very good at). Now, though I still enjoy the actual carving/shaping activity the most, I also enjoy the finishing aspect. I think that comes from having gotten past the not-understanding-staining aspect and actually learning how to sand.

When I started making pipes, I didn't consider sanding to be a skill. I didn't realize there was anything to know -- you just rub the paper on the wood. Duh.

Well y'all have a great day, it's time for me to "sand and be happy" as one of my colleagues likes to put it.