WIP - First Try at a Kit

[wintermute]

I received a Tinsky pipe kit a couple of weeks back and have been working at it slowly and methodically. I told Mark that I was thinking of turning it into a Prince The kit was delivered with perfectly drilled bowl and draft hole, a shaped but not finished stem, centerlines of both holes drawn on one surface and a rough sketch of a prince shape as well (bowl diameter was too wide for the block cross section - just saying this to defend my cut placement). I was planning on turning this into a "Black Prince" but this seems to have some pretty good grain so far - bird's eye on top, flame on the front. I'm using nothing but hand tools on this one - slow and steady. I read Blackhorse's post on a Tinsky kit and took his suggestion on buying a Japanese pull saw. I'm glad I did.

Anyway, a friend suggested that I do this as a WIP thread, which I fear is the kiss of death, but anyway, here's how it was as-delivered (with some lines drawn by me added):

And here it is today:

Comments and critiques are much appreciated. I'm trying to figure out how much I want to cut down the chamber. Right now it's at 1.3" with a 0.71" diameter.

 

[ejames]

Looks like you are off to a good start!

 

[Mr. Doody]

Good luck wintermute! Please do keep the WIP thread going. I've seen a bunch of such "kits" online and am fascinated to see how it works out.

Thx,
Doody

 

[PhilD]

Slow and steady stays the course. I'm really interested in how this project turns out. Keep up the WIP thread.

Phil

 

[dshpipes]

Looks like you're off to a good start! Enjoy the process and (the note most often given to us new guys) don't be afraid to remove more material!

 

[Carlos]

I like how you keep drawing in the guide lines.

 

[mark]

I'm trying to figure out how much I want to cut down the chamber. Right now it's at 1.3" with a 0.71" diameter.

I think that's a good size myself.

A lot of guys are interested in carving their own pipe, so the WIP updates are valuable.

In fact we had a pipe carving contest a while back, it was pretty interesting.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Nice one, wintermute--I can't wait to see the final product. I usually draw guide lines on my pipes when I try and decipher what direction the briar wants to go. As one once said to me here, "...carve away anything that doesn't make it a world-class pipe."

I apparently need a Japanese pull-saw! I like what they do.

8)

 

[wintermute]

Second Update:

Now it's starting to look like a pipe. It's look like a billiard, granted, but a pipe nonetheless. Additional work to get it to this point included 45-ing the back side of the bowl and preliminary rounding with a rasp. This was done with the pull saw on the top. Due to the stummel being in the way on the bottom, I switched to a coping saw and cut a sort of uber transition between the bowl and stummel. I then proceeded to start rounding and shaving it down with my rasp and brought a half-round needle file into play as well. I shaved down the stummel a bit as well and started preliminary rounding with the rasp. I also shaved down the entire bottom of the pipe by laying some 60-grit sandpaper on a flat surface and dragging the pipe all over it in different directions.

I picked up two different sizes of round bastard files after the fact - these will definitely help out alot. Right now I am starting to run out of material around the stummel and transition, and I'm finding that when working on one area, if I'm not paying close attention, the edges of my files are digging into another area.

Two things that dawned on me: I'm going to have to remove ALOT of material up top to give it a tomatoey shape; and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to keep the flat shelf at the top of the bowl close to round once I start removing this material.

 

[Irish Mike]

Looks Great! I'm glad you decided to do a WIP on this project.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

You got a lot of work ahead of you with such a shape--there's no shame in keeping it simple if you decide before it's too late! :lol:

I can tell you're approaching it very pragmatically and carefully. Keep the updates coming!

8)

 

[wintermute]

Nothing substantial or exciting to report, but I do have a question. How much material do I leave at the bottom of the bowl? Right now I'm at 0.35 inch. The problem is that my shank shaping efforts have left the bottom of the shank noticeably higher than where the bottom of the bowl is now, deviating from the typical prince shape, but I don't think I should remove any more material from the bottom of the bowl.

 

[Growley]

You're doing a very nice job so far! Keep in mind how you want your bottom line to flow from bowl to stem. A lot of noobs let their bowls droop some. Looking forward to seeing the final.

Brian.

 

[wintermute]

A lot of noobs let their bowls droop some.

Thanks for the advice. My concern is that I will have to let the bottom of the bowl droop due to clearance concerns. Bottom of chamber is around 0.35" - 0.4" away from bottom of bowl and bottom of shank is about 0.1" above bottom of bowl.

 

[PipeLeisure]

Coming along very nice, pencil lines are the best, they sure save on the "OOPS" part of pipe making.

 

[Rob_In_MO]

A lot of noobs let their bowls droop some.

Thanks for the advice. My concern is that I will have to let the bottom of the bowl droop due to clearance concerns. Bottom of chamber is around 0.35" - 0.4" away from bottom of bowl and bottom of shank is about 0.1" above bottom of bowl.

In this case, you're bowl might have to drop some. You don't want the bottom of the bowl to be too thin. I think that what you have right now is plenty, but I would not for any reason leave it any thinner than .25 inches.

While thinner might be fine (i'm sure others will chime in on this factor), I'd leave at least that much for my own piece of mind. But then I do tend to over-engineer things and make them much heavier-duty than they need be.

 

[wintermute]

I got a lot more work done over the last few days. I finished rounding out the sides of my bowl, rounded out the bottom of the bowl, and worked on "extending" the shank towards the bowl and minimizing the transition. The transition work has been the most labor intensive. It has involved looking for the proper angle to attack the excess wood with a round file to give it that proper Prince look. Every time I've brought the transition back toward the bowl I've had to then round and straighten the shank. The shank is getting closer to matching the stem. I'm taking that work very slowly with a mill file. I'm very pleased how the bottom of the pipe has turned out. During the rounding out of the top of the bowl (still in the process), I noticed that one errant cut made with the coping saw early on (before I bought the pull saw) has given the front of the bowl a funky shape, with too much material removed. This oopsey has resulted in me currently doing damage control. To combat this, after these photos were taken, I started lowering the top of the bowl with a rasp. depth of chamber right now is around 1.30"-1.35". I'm going to try to get it down to at least 1.2" - which is going to take alot of rasp work.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

It's looking spectacular. The shank-to-bowl transition is a B*TCH to get right.

How much more bowl shaping do you have left? The top-view is suggesting a very symmetrical shape, though some more gentle curves could be had around the sides. But don't take my word for it... 8)

Glad to see you working toward this! The time you're taking is worth it.

 

[wintermute]

It's looking spectacular. The shank-to-bowl transition is a B*TCH to get right.

How much more bowl shaping do you have left? The top-view is suggesting a very symmetrical shape, though some more gentle curves could be had around the sides. But don't take my word for it... 8)

Glad to see you working toward this! The time you're taking is worth it.

Thanks for the compliments Kyle! There's some great bird's eye grain on the rim and I don't want to lose too much of it. So except for maybe some transition (from side to top, not from shank to bowl) work, the sides aren't going to get too much softer. I'm very tempted to bust out the pull saw again and just lop off that extra 0.15-0.2" off the top of the bowl, but I know I'd wind up regretting it.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Thanks for the compliments Kyle! There's some great bird's eye grain on the rim and I don't want to lose too much of it. So except for maybe some transition (from side to top, not from shank to bowl) work, the sides aren't going to get too much softer. I'm very tempted to bust out the pull saw again and just lop off that extra 0.15-0.2" off the top of the bowl, but I know I'd wind up regretting it.

I did that with my first pipe, lobbing off the top a good 1/2", and though it balanced out the pipe a little, I wish I had that extra space for tobacco. Especially on a first pipe--it smokes great, but I at times look in the bottom of the bowl very sadly when I'm done smoking. :lol:

The hardest thing I've come across in my few carvings so far is getting a good, balanced bowl shape--getting rid of the cylinder sides (by design), finding those odd angles that jut out randomly, and as you mentioned, the shank/bowl transition. I think that's why globe-shaped pipes impress me so much--as I don't have a lathe.