The Pipe Maker's Guild, Los Angeles

[sorringowl]

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to announce the first official meeting of my new pipe making club, the Pipe Maker's Guild, in Los Angeles (at my workshop), on Saturday, May 12th, 2012.

Last year, I had one unofficial meeting, with a few pipe forum buddies and, we had such a great time, that I decided to make it a regular thing. I've been gearing up my shop the past couple of months for pipe making, including getting a buffing system and buying another lathe (and I will be getting some more equipment as well).

The Pipe Maker's Guild will be a place where aspiring (and hopefully, in the future, more experienced) pipe makers can come to learn, and of course, make pipes! It will also be a place, where, after a hard day's work (and hopefully the makings of a pipe), we can all sit down together (on the outside patio area of the shop), smoke a pipe, have a drink, and talk shop.

If you're in the Los Angeles area, and would like to come to our first official meeting, on May 12th, PM with your interest, and I will send you directions to my shop and more details.

And, I will be posting more info about the club, in general, and its aims, on this thread. Thanks for looking.
Frank

 

[Harlock999]

I'm there!

 

[Hater]

oh man!!! I am SOOOOO there!!!!

 

[sorringowl]

Okay, fellers,

This weekend (Saturday, the 12th, to be exact) is the first official meeting of the Pipe Maker's Guild. Just want to get a head count of any new people interested in coming so I can PM you guys directions and such.

Let me know who's in!
Thanks!
Frank

 

[MisterE]

For those of us that can't make it, we'll want pictures!!

H, it's up to you! :cheers:

 

[Harlock999]

For those of us that can't make it, we'll want pictures!!

H, it's up to you! :cheers:

Happy to oblige!

 

[Harlock999]

Well, the 1st Official Los Angeles Pipe Maker's Guild meeting was a lot of fun, and pipes were made!
Frank (sorringowl) opened up his work shop and once again guided me through the pipe making process. By the end of the afternoon, I had a good start on a shape 65 knock-off that I was attempting, and Frank had shaped a Caminetto style lucite stem for a small pot shaped briar he was working on. Hater stopped by on his way back to Ojai for a quick smoke and conversation. All in all, it was great way to spend the day, and I'm definitely looking forward to more meetings!
The work shop:

Frank at the bandsaw:

My pipe, as it starts to take shape:

 

[dshpipes]

Ooooh! Looks like fun! I look forward to seeing that pipe get finished, Harlock.

 

[sorringowl]

Hey guys,
Just thought I'd post a few more pics of our 1st official meeting and talk a little more about what we worked on.
Thanks for the pics, Harlock! Been meaning to download some myself (been a little busy with work) so, here they are:

Chris at the sander, working on his Castello 65 shape!

Chris brought a nice vintage Castello 65 with him, as inspiration, to work from and man, what a pretty pipe! It was the first time I saw a Castello up close and personal and that was one of the nice things about getting together like this (you get to see pipes that maybe you haven't seen before and have a chance to learn from them). (Maybe Chris can post a pic of that so people can see the inspiration for his pipe?)

From what I can see, Chris (although he says has very little experience with tools) has taken to the belt and disc sander quite well. He seems to have a very good eye for shaping, is patient (something we're both finding out is absolutely necessary for making pipes) and, unlike me, knows when to quit machine sanding and move on to filing and hand sanding (I've already ruined a few stems myself by thinking, "No...I think I can take a liiiitttle more off on the 3450 RPM sander..."--and then, before you know it, you have a nice piece of lucite you can use as a really weird looking tamper (or keep in your toolbox, like I do, to remind myself to quit while I'm ahead).

Here's the Pot shaped nosewarmer I'm working on (on the right):

In this first pic (above) you can see my pipe shaping up alongside it's inspiration, a very nice, stout Svendborg Pot (that I bought from Mattias76's Vikingclubpipes.com), which I absolutely love.

I wanted to do a smaller, rusticated take-off of this shape with a wider stem. I've really been getting into pot shapes lately, and experimenting with smoking flakes in them (I read somewhere GL Pease prefers pots for flakes so, as I've never had much luck with flakes in general, I thought I'd give it a try--but that's another thread, and, I digress...)

The stem on the Svendborg is great but I figured since I'm making my own pipes now, I can experiment with stem shapes/widths/thicknesses to find what works best for my particular dentition. It seems, in order for me to clench comfortably, I need a stem that's either a little thicker in the middle than most, or, flatter and wider, (similar to the stem work of PS Studio's Vladimir Grechukin -- shown in the pic below):

As you can see, I still have quite a bit of the stem material to remove on this particular pipe to get to the point where it is clenchable:

Here are some other views:

Because I wanted to make a wider stem, I had to turn the position of the lucite rod material on its side, as this rod stock came from PME, and the shape was rectangular. Had I positioned it the normal way, you would have seen a lot more swirl on the stem (ala, the "grain" that you might see on a cumberland stem). However, I thought it would create some interesting designs on the stem and it did.

The shapes the sanding has created on the stem, thus far, look and feel very Japanese to me and you can see what looks like two small mountains peaking above clouds (or the sea mist?) on top of the stem. So, I'm going to name this the Takeshima Pot, named after two rock islands between Japan and Korea (which, btw, they have both disputed ownership of for years--that's another long, but interesting, story). Here's a pic:

I have always loved Japanese design and, although I didn't necessarily set out to make a Japanese looking pipe (I just had a rough idea for a rusticated pot), I thought it was funny how, sometimes, our aesthetic preferences make themselves known, almost organically, in the creating of something we make.

Besides the stem work, I still have some symmetry work to do, shaping wise, on the bowl, before I can start rusticating, but, the plan is to smooth out the rim (which I beveled on the lathe), dye the stummel, either a light red or grey (which is just thinned out black dye, actually), rusticate the stummel fairly deeply, and then dye the stummel (minus the rim) a deep black and then sand back to show the undertone's highlights. I think the contrast between the stummel and stem will be very striking and I think it will be a pipe I will want to pick up all the time. Hopefully, it will be a decent smoker too (my drilling was a little off so, we'll see).

All in all, Chris and I (and Kelly) had a great time making (and talking about) pipes, pipe makers and pipe making, and hopefully, in our future meetings, we'll see some more aspiring makers from Southern California (and those visiting from out of state) stop by to make pipes, shoot the breeze and have a smoke with us (although, in the two times we've met, so far, Chris and I have yet to smoke a pipe--I guess we we're too busy [and having too much fun] trying to make something we can smoke later).

The next Pipe Maker's Guild Meeting will probably be in mid-June (I'll announce the date soon), so, let me know if you're interested in coming and making some pipes with us.

Thanks!

 

[monbla256]

GREAT,GREAT post !!! :cheers: PLEASE keep us up-dated with more pics and text about this particular pipe as from what you've written, it sounds like it will be a NICE one PS I LOVE Pots and do smoke most of my Flakes in mine

 

[dshpipes]

Monbla said it. Great post!

 

[Harlock999]

That's going to be a great looking stem and pipe Frank!
I love the Asian inspiration. It's subtle, but you can really feel it, which is just as it should be.
And thanks you for the kind words. What Frank is leaving out is how many times I had to stop, and seriously ask him "What do I do now?"
I was so excited that I spent the next day filing both my new pipe, and one that I started last August.
Here's the Castello I'm trying to copy:

 

[MisterE]

That's awesome! Thanks for putting the pics up everyone. Great to see the bros getting together in person and making some pipes!!

If I were closer I'd be there in a second. It'd be great to meet some of the guys in person. I hope you keep it up!

 

[sorringowl]

For those of you that have been following the making of the pipes we're working on at the PMG, just wanted to give you an update on the progress of the Pot shaped pipe I'm working on.

Well, it's pretty much come to a standstill. As you can see, yesterday (after untold hours of work on this stem (and stummel): sanding, shaping; turning the tenon by hand; opening up the button, freehand, with a dremel, etc.), while rusticating the bowl, I...dropped, yes dropped this pipe, out of my hands, and onto my very unforgiving workshop floor, only to hear a tiny, but almost deafening, sound, "crack!"

I knew before I even picked it up that the tenon inside was broken, and I was right. Not only that, the broken tenon was stuck inside the draft hole (awesome). And before I even had a chance to recover from my deep depression and fish the damn thing out, my guitar making buddy (who I share my shop with--and who knows even less than I do about pipe making [less than zero]), took the tang end of a huge file he uses to shape guitar necks and jammed it into the mortise side of the stummel, trying to dig the broken tenon out.


As I was still in shock from the break, and unable to speak like a normal human being, he started reaming the mortise end as I started (but couldn't finish) protests for him to be careful (as I didn't want the mortise end of the stummel going out of square, or the draft hole going out of round--and thus, ruining that too). But before I could complete sentences like, "Be careful, dude, 'cause--" and, "Don't twist too hard, man, 'cause--" it was out. He handed me the tiny, little broken tenon and I stood there, looking at it, like a kid holding a tooth that had fallen out: sad to see it go, but, in a way, happy for the experience (if that makes sense).


What I'm getting at, despite me still being really bummed out every time I think about it (still, even now), is that pipe making, in a real, visceral way, really affords you the opportunity to learn a lot about, well, not only making a pipe, but, about yourself.


What I've learned from this experience as it regards making a pipe:


1. When rusticating a bowl, remove the stem and mask off the draft hole end of the shank. Easy Peazy! (Why the hell didn't I think of that?!)

2. Despite being proud of myself for hand turning the tenon, it's probably not a good idea to drill a 4mm draft hole in your stem, when your tenon needs to fit a 1/4" mortise (as that leaves you with walls on your tenon that are about 1mm thick--which, now that I think of it, with walls that thin, my tenon would have broken sooner or later and most likely from just the heat generated from smoking). So, next time (instead of trying to reinvent the wheel and spending half a day trying to hand turn a tenon), drill two holes (one in the stem, and one in the shank end), glue a piece of Delrin rod (which I have) to the stem, and call it a day.

3. Everything is fixable (or, at least, do-overable). While looking at the damage today, I realized I can try to redrill the stem hole (and the mortise in the shank) to fit a 5/16" Delrin rod, and, as long as it lines up pretty square, I'm back in business. Now, will that be easy to do? Probably not. But, if all else fails, I can always re-do the stem (which, yes, suuuuuccccks...I know, but...what can you do?)

And, finally,

4. And this is the most important lesson: DON'T DROP THE DAMN PIPE! (especially when you have the stem in there, and especially, when you're nearing the end of the pipe making process, but, really, just don't drop a pipe, ever. It's not good for your pipe and it really sucks for you.)


What I've learned about myself:

1. Pipe making, and all its trials and tribulations, really test a man's patience and perseverance. When you think about all the time and tools, and money, you spend on trying to make a pipe, you think, "Wow, I could've bought, like, two Castellos, a Dunhill and a few Sasquatches and had a nice, small collection of world class, hand made, smoking machines!" But (and coming from the experience of making a lot of things for others, and myself--and as good as the aforementioned pipe makers and their pipes are [and you really owe it to yourself to get one--get the Sasquatch]), there's nothing quite like the experience of enjoying something that you've made with your own two hands, and, no matter what hell you've got to go through to get there, in the end, it's always worth it.


So, that being said...I'll be back to show you some more pictures of this pipe, when it's finished.


I just hope that once I'm done, and I'm about to take pics to show you guys, that I DON'T DROP THE DAMN THING!

 

[monbla256]

That's a VERY UNFORTUNATE accident. Would it not be easier and less work really to re=cut a NEW stem to fit the hole sizing and work you have done in the now completed rustication on the pipe? Less possibility of damage to the wood ? I don't make pipes but have done commercial woodworking for years and when a "mess-up" happens, we always fixed what was messed-up and made it work to the completed part

 

[dshpipes]

Dude, that sucks! Sorry to see that the tenon broke. I think it's great that you've decide to add a delrin tenon to save the stem. Thanks for sharing your revelations too! I look forward to seeing the finished product!

 

[Harlock999]

Aww man!
That's a tough break (no pun intended).
It's kind of funny because, as careful as I am with my pipes, I still manage to drop them all the time.
In fact I dropped my Castello 65 a few days ago. It's still intact, though...

 

[sorringowl]

That's a VERY UNFORTUNATE accident. Would it not be easier and less work really to re=cut a NEW stem to fit the hole sizing and work you have done in the now completed rustication on the pipe? Less possibility of damage to the wood ? I don't make pipes but have done commercial woodworking for years and when a "mess-up" happens, we always fixed what was messed-up and made it work to the completed part

Hey Monbla,
That's very good advice. I will try redrilling the stem only and fitting a 1/4" Delrin rod to it. I might have to drill a smaller draft hole (no, I will definitely have to) into the new tenon but, I think that makes more sense. Thanks for the advice! I will remember that (and try not to reinvent the wheel anymore).

 

[sorringowl]

Dude, that sucks! Sorry to see that the tenon broke. I think it's great that you've decide to add a delrin tenon to save the stem. Thanks for sharing your revelations too! I look forward to seeing the finished product!

Yes, well, we'll see if I can save it or not (hehe). I'm hoping so, 'cause I really like the little two mountain design that appeared on there.
Thanks!

 

[sorringowl]

Okay, Brethren o' the Briar,

The date for the 2nd meeting of the Pipe Maker's Guild, will be held on Saturday, June 23rd, 2012!

Each session takes place in my woodworking shop in Los Angeles and all tools are provided. You will, however, need to bring a few things (listed below).

If you'd like to join us, send me a PM (space is limited, so, earlier is better) and I will send you some info:

Here is, basically, what you will need.

1. A pipe kit (or, pipe you're currently working on). For now, we're concentrating on shaping. In future meetings we will be going over the process of making a pipe, from scratch, step by step.

2. Some dust masks and a pair of safety glasses or goggles (briar dust is very fine so, you'll want to wear some protection).

3. A pipe you already have (not made by you) that you want to use as a guide to make your pipe (this is not absolutely necessary but it's good to have a three dimensional object, in this case, another pipe, that you can work from as it's easier to see where you have to end up).

You may also want to bring a folding chair, a drink and/or some lunch (although we usually order in or go out for a quick bite), a pipe to smoke and your favorite toby, and a good attitude and the willingness to make mistakes. We have a lot of fun and sometimes we even make a pipe.

Let me know if you'd like to join us.
Thanks,
Frank