>Of course we cannot plan for every contingency nor anticipate any and all outside possibilities in anything that we do. One of the requisites of pipemaking is a healthy dose of grace for the natural material with which we work. One cannot predict exactly what will be found beneath the surface of a block of briar. We can, of course, examine the outside layers of the wood to form hypotheses around which we design our work. Many times things go as planned. Sometimes we’re surprised. And these surprises are not always good.
Once I remember taking a very “inexpensive” $20 block of briar that I bought intending to make a blast. The grain was wide and unremarkable. Yet inside, it shrugged off the evidence of blandness that the exterior suggested. Instead, it was filled with extraordinarily dense straight and birdseye graining (the two tend to match up. )
More often, though, we take a remarkably grained block that we purchased for a remarkably high price and find flaws within–sometimes pipe killing flaws.
But I digress.
I am not writing today about natural flaws, but human ones. Sometimes we just screw up. Hopefully these times are few and become fewer with time. The most striking of my earliest blunders came when I rusticated through an otherwise extraordinary shape’s shank and into the draft hole. I could hardly afford such an error at the time as I was selling pipes just to buy briar and tooling while working hard in my graduate program. I fixed it and still smoke the pipe regularly…but I would rather have sold it.
Well, yesterday, in a feat inspired by the confluence of poor planning and a moment of carelessness I managed to do something I’ve only done one other time that I recall. I ruined a long-shanked blowfish while drilling the draft hole. After cursing myself, I cut the shank off at the point of error and decided where to go from there. Here’s a shot of the pieced together blunder:
I thought it was a pretty cool shape. Something a little different. Well, the idea will have to wait. This one has taken new form as a nosewarmer. Whether the flaw is natural or human in origin, the problem remains until it is overcome. This is the primary task of a pipemaker–to make something beautiful despite the inherent flaws in the material and manipulator. Here is a shot of the same pipe sans long shank, taken from the top to give you an idea of the profile:
You can see that the pipe has been drilled and its engineering has been redrawn and executed. Next I’ve got a photo of the stem stock with its delrin tenon inset, turned, and fitted to the stummel below a sketch of what I envision the pipe will turn out like.
I’ve preserved the idea of the upturned or flipped tail to the blowfish, but have transferred the movement to the stem from its intended location on the shank. I think that this will turn out well! Next, the stem stock has had its airway and slot widened, filed, and finished so that I can rough out the shape. This last photo illustrates the “rough” stem and shows the pipe taking on its final form.
I’ll shorten up the tail a bit, bring it into form, and touch up the lines before the sanding begins. The pipe has turned out quite well, considering its origin. I have to say that I quite like it and that the story makes the pipe that much more interesting to me. Each pipe has a story, but some are more interesting than others.
As the pipe is being completed I’ll post some additional photos so that you all can see it move toward its final form.
Thanks for reading and off to do some sanding.
Best,
Jeff
