| « | December 2006 | » | ||||
 |
||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
This pipe smokes better than any pipe i have ever smoked, including my $300 Ardor Fantasy. The double draw barrel is awesome! Too bad I couldn't sell this one. ;)
This batch of wood is proving difficult in that it is soooo dry its hard and brittle. That equals cracking. This pipe has gotten small but it is similar to one of my favorites, an all black one i had in mind when I started. I'm calling it "The Blackfriar" This will be a great sitting in traffic smoke.
This is the last pipe of '06!
Fittingly the tobacco chamber is perfect as is the beginning of the bowl. This pipe will be a subtle refection of my Castle pipe, but effectively is being CARVED to showcase my Blackrock finish, one of three Thos.Martin finishes : Blackrock, Castlerock, and Smooth Stone. Stay tuned.
After final shaping with the coping saw, this pipe will be carved old school style: with a knife . . .
Seems the second I say, "this pipes not for sale," people want it. There have been three people wanting this pipe. I should have said I can't sell this pipe because ALL the issues have been worked ut, except for the fact the bowl is cracked!!!!
Therefore, I smoked this pipe and will keep smoking it forever... or until it blows up. Several suggestions for a name: Crack pipe, LibertyBowl, but I think I'll call it The Baluster. Here it is about three or four sanding steps before stain, polish, and wax.
The car is my son's creation and tied for first place (3x's) in the shop class derby! A Co2 inserts into a hole in the back.
Its fassssssssttttttt........ so's the pipe:
As some of you know (those people waiting for pipes), I took the weekend off to visit the Kaywoodie workshop in Peeskill, NY. I was honored to meet so many nice people in the pipe community and to rub elbows with several of the finest pipemakers in the World: Joe Skoda, Tim Hynick, Rolando Negoita, and Bill Feuerbach III- Kaywoodie.
Thank you all for the wisdom, advice, and support. A special thanks to Bill for the tour of the "factory," and to Tim for treating me as if a peer.
re the sleeve on pipe 708: Very sharp! MP
Ontario, CANADA
Nov 16, 2006 7:24 PM
Tom,
When working on where the shank meets the stem, I accidentally broke the tenon off the shank. I suppose now might be a good time to explain how to get the broken piece of tenon out off the mortis, especially if you do not have the special tool for the purpose. Find a sm. brad with a head diameter smaller than the draught hole. Hold the brad with a pair of pliers. Insert the head into the hole past the end of the broken tenon. Hook the end of the tenon with the edge of the head and pull the piece out. Backto the drawing board on the stem. . . Not as bad as it seems, but not tonight I have a headache...
I need to make sure that the panel billiard is less of a freehand and more trad...
I'll start by making sure the proportions are correct. I no doubt will have to trim some of the top. then I'll need to decide wether to leave the top of the bowl rusticated or not...
Then, I'll re-asses other aspects.Most important. I need to work the joint where the shank meets the stem so that it is square. This will take a while. Carry on. . .
Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club of Boston 
I proceeded and its reminescent of Dylan gone electric at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. Either you hated it or you loved it. All other pipes were made while listneing to classical music. The station was down so I listened to Rock. Loud. And, well, it shows. Garish, bold, and out of tune but oddly interesting. Hard to put my finger on why I like this pipe, kind of Like Dylan; can't sing but I love him.
a hard rain is gonna fall....
despite the fact that PIMO says it should be the easiest. Maybe that is the case depending on what tools you got, but I HATE my sears Mitre Saw. S_cks. Didn't get to work in the shop as much today because While cleaning the house today, I noticed that the roof is leaking. So I ended up cleaning the gutters, and then I had to rake what I had cleaned out of the guttes. And so it goes...
Also, the "twist" I mentioned on this "four square" earlier is that I twisted the square shank ninety degrees to make it a diamond shank. It is although giving me a bit of grief (actually I love it). To think a little more positive, The stem is an awesome diamond twin bore saddle. Smoking....
pictures are worth a 100 words....
Tommorow I'll decide how to proceed...
I have been a good boy. I'll make you a pipe! remember how you used to smoke one before it wasn't PC? Please Santa. Please. I promise I'll be good next year too!
This pipe is being packaged with a tobacco box and tamper/keyring.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
2006
Here's my dog Ally basking the warmth of Pipe 10 which I rendered into firewood. I had too much difficulty drilling the holes to accomodate the bend. The mortise wasn't clean and thing went south from there... Enjoy the fire Ally!
Interesting story about this shape... later though... My son picked out the the saddle stem.
All background images in these photos are from the Winter 2007 Edition of Pipes & Tobacco Magazine. The article titled "Briar Cutters" featuring the Romeo's of Italy. "Mimmo"Romeo states in the article that the outside of the burl is the MOST desireable. Pipe 9 includes the absolute, spot on, dead-center of the burl, which is safe to assume is the LEAST desireable part of the burl. For this reason PIPE 9 is mine and not yours.
I do feel that I did reconcile the dead center of the burl with the heel of the pipe, wrapping around to each side. I actually like it and like I said before it is rock solid. It is by definition the oldest part of this burl.
Mimmo also says that once the wood is processed/milled/cured it is not possible to dertermine the origin of the wood, neither i it as important as many people suggest. What is important is in fact the service Mimmo to the pipemaking community. The people with the sawing the blocks, in my humble opinion have a huge impact on the final product. For instance, if I put out a straight grain or other gorgeous pipe, it is because the folks with the saws made it possible.
The pictures below hopefully demonstrate the center of the burl as it presents itself in my pipe:
Can't wait to smoke it!
I decide to add a line of tampers to production... for those "off days." I figured out the design, what to use as the actual stoker, the part that meets the ember: Stainless. I decided what to use for the tamper material, and more imporatanly how to integrate it with the stainless. I need to work out some procedural kinks, and solidify some designs, and actually let my son make some as well. Cost of materials is more than you'd imagine but the will still be affordable, in fact I will probably take them to swap meets and hive them to SHPC every month as part of their door prizes they raffle off.
Here are some prototypes. Feedback encouraged. I forgot to photograph the one that already made it into my pocket. My favorite is the balck and orange castle/lighthouse shape one. the two others are for Christmas and are red and green.
I have also decided to catergorize my pipes:
I've been stalling on Pipe eight a bit because its my last bit-o-briar. I have a shipment on the way but as of today its in Erie, PA. I'm in Beverly, MA. It'll be a couple of days. And I took Monday off because that's what I do. Although I did do some sanding: 2-300 grind, with the staining inbetween.
Today I did 300-600 grinds and stained it for the last time. Tonight and or tommorow I will do 800 - 100, polish and wax it. I also carbonised the bowl.
Top ten reasons why this pipe is not for sale:
