Topic: Pipe 8: NOV06 -NFS
... to use an acrylic stem for once. I hadn't because" the pipo tenon turner wasn't working on acrylic for me because it was slightly bent and it was breaking and chonpping and making a bloody mess. Solution: I straigntened it out a bit and that help, but more importantly I use it in a different drill. An OLD drill of my dads. Its from back when they made them with aluminum casing. This drill has a higher RPM and worked much beter. Excellent actually.
About the briar. This is the hardest briar I've ever seen. Its not much to look at but its solid as a rock. As usual I'm going throught the same old thought processes as usual: love it hat it love it hate it, want to keep it, sell it, keep it. It's the best pipe yet, the worst, its a masterpiece, its trash. So, i decided it was time to put the ipe down and watch the Pats.
caffeinated
With all the planning I did on pipe 8, Pipe 9 just kind of happened after visiting Heather Coleman's website on clay pipes. I love the delicate shapes of clays, and see no reason not to transfer the elegance to briar; all the better!
<< Notice the wicked mess. This is a rough rough cut. Also note the broken coping saw blade. Grrr!
Here (left) are some early 19th century Clay pipes from Heathers collection. Impressive and for me, inspiring. Months ago I had thought of mimicking the shapes of clays. Reading Corneels article whelp to reinforce that desire. Seeing Heather's collection has opened my eyes as well, and reminded me of when I was a teen snorkeling by the coast by my house in Beverly, Mass. I found a stem from a clay pipe. I assumed it was from the 1700's when half-way between my house and the beach stood the Woodbury Tavern. I was hooked and did a bit research myself and remember learning that tavern pipes were community property, and after they were smoke, the stem would be broken off for the next person. I have since/recently learned that the tavern pipes were pretty much the "estate pipe" of today. Taverns were effectively the secondary market for clay pipes. 
Lucky Pipe 7 did rise from the ashes. (pictured is a jacket I embroidered (Monday night Football in reflection)) I ended up filing it, and the shaping it with 80 grit (or "grind" as the Dutch say), then sanding it all the way down to 1000 grit. Really. I stained it to expose the grain. It is perfectly in tune with the layout of design. If it were a guitar it would be called blame grained, or burst. In pipe parlance it is a straight grain I think. 
So far: It seems like "Vulcanite" is a good stem material for a "a" but I am tending toward acrylic having experimented them recently in what I like to call "Pimp my Pip.e" More on that later.. . Anyway, as a smoker I prefer the vulcanite because Im a biter, but as an artist I am moving towards Cumberland stems and Acrylic. 
He even states that if you consider the weight of the wood to be important, with lightness being better, than you might want to consider the rootball from a male plant. Pipe 5 is a long but light pipe. Pipe 5 Lite if you will. But I can't imagine specifying female briar when placing an order. Do the harvesters or mills even know the gender of the plant. Fact is Female briar is tighter grained, denser and therefore heavier. If you smoke hot, you might want a heavier pipe more resistent to burnout. Anyway.. 
, the possibilities are endless. If the shapes are the grammar, than the other variables are the vocabulary. Those variables are length of shank & stem:
After three hours of shaping, Pipe 5 has taken on a new life. Its tending toward a classic shape, and away from a dutch-like Freehand. But I think you'll like it. I'm loving it. Pictures Saturday, you'll ee what I mean.
The trouble with rusticatation is that the pipe looks like sh!t before it looks good. this pipe No. 5 is looking less and less than what I had in mind. That's not neccesarily a bad thing. It is what it is.
So, I spent time fitting a new stem to the pipe, then shaping the shank to match the stem. So far the sand pit/blemish has not gone away and I started to think... Cindy Crawford has a "blemish" on her face but she's smokin'. I wouldn't throw her out of bed, and likewise I won't throw the pipe in the wastebasket either. That's just crazy!
Here you see Pipe 5 taken shape after the coping saw. The top will be round, and then there is a hip where it squares off a bit. see prior castle pics posted.