As long as it takes
Today I completed 320-grit sanding and 600-grit sanding. I could, if nothing happens, actually finish this pipe tomorrow.
Taking this long to make a pipe is ludicrous, and I am surely insane for continuing to do it. There are makers who turn out 6 or more pipes in a single day.
There is a famous yellow-and-black stain, and another famous red-and-black stain, both done by famous carvers. They seem very popular looks.
I want my pipes to look as if they are made from... wood. Briar, in fact. I'm a sucker for birdseye and flame and transitional grain. Straight grain just doesn't do that much for me. It's probably a bad thing for a carver to come out and say that he doesn't much like straight grain, but it's the truth. A perfect straight grain pipe is, to me, boring. If I wanted straight-grained pipes it would be much easier and less costly to make them from oak, or pine. It's the swirly patterns in briar that give it character to my eye.
When I am finishing a smooth pipe, I take huge amounts of time to do it. Part of that is because I am making minute shape adjustments down to the 1000-grit sandpaper level. Not that my shapes are perfect, but they are the closest that I can get them. But most of the time comes from wanting to see every hair of the grain, clearly. I spend a lot of time sanding under a loupe.
I also keep my finish colors on the light side, for two reasons. One is so that the grain patterms are more defined, the other is because the minute a pipe begins its useful life as a smoking instrument, its color darkens. If I make it the perfect color before it is smoked, it will be too dark later. I want the pipes I make to get better with age.
But I am clearly insane, or I would be spending my time making large gobs of money instead of sanding briar under a loupe. I rather like it though.
Taking this long to make a pipe is ludicrous, and I am surely insane for continuing to do it. There are makers who turn out 6 or more pipes in a single day.
There is a famous yellow-and-black stain, and another famous red-and-black stain, both done by famous carvers. They seem very popular looks.
I want my pipes to look as if they are made from... wood. Briar, in fact. I'm a sucker for birdseye and flame and transitional grain. Straight grain just doesn't do that much for me. It's probably a bad thing for a carver to come out and say that he doesn't much like straight grain, but it's the truth. A perfect straight grain pipe is, to me, boring. If I wanted straight-grained pipes it would be much easier and less costly to make them from oak, or pine. It's the swirly patterns in briar that give it character to my eye.
When I am finishing a smooth pipe, I take huge amounts of time to do it. Part of that is because I am making minute shape adjustments down to the 1000-grit sandpaper level. Not that my shapes are perfect, but they are the closest that I can get them. But most of the time comes from wanting to see every hair of the grain, clearly. I spend a lot of time sanding under a loupe.
I also keep my finish colors on the light side, for two reasons. One is so that the grain patterms are more defined, the other is because the minute a pipe begins its useful life as a smoking instrument, its color darkens. If I make it the perfect color before it is smoked, it will be too dark later. I want the pipes I make to get better with age.
But I am clearly insane, or I would be spending my time making large gobs of money instead of sanding briar under a loupe. I rather like it though.
posted by random at 8:55 PM
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