Saturday, June 24, 2006

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.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

About this blog

Hi, folks. Welcome to my new blog. It seemed like this might be a good way to keep those who are interested informed about what's going on, without all the hassle of website updates. It also seemed like it might be a good way to find out what people think, and what people want, in an environment free of trolls. It may be a fairly active blog, or it could fizzle out. We'll see what happens. -r