First tamper finished; 10/1/12

[aaronbrill]

After seeing all of the inspiration for custom tampers around here, I decided to make a couple out of some curly maple scraps I had left from one of my guitar builds. I'm just starting the 2nd one, but here's a couple pictures of the first one. In a couple days I'll give it a quick wet-sanding to smooth the lacquer a bit but other than that it's all finished. The brass is a cut down .30-.30 shell.

 

[bentmike]

:worship: Nice work aaronbrill! Tamper making is addictive I'll say that. Welcome to the forum and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

 

[hawk60ce]

very nice!

 

[photoman13]

Wow that looks really good. I want to see the guitar as well!

 

[aaronbrill]

Thanks guys! Well here's an old picture of the guitar that the scraps were from, it's a 27.5" scale baritone guitar with an ash/maple body and a maple neck with ebony fretboard.

 

[bentmike]

Sweet guitar! Here you'll want to check out this thread: post yer guitar pictures

 

[piperl12]

She is a beauty, it kind of reminds me of some of Taylors electrics.

 

[gwtwdbss]

Wow, nice!

 

[johncorosz]

Will you trade some of these fine tampers for tobacco or a few tampers for a pipe?

 

[ghost]

Awesome axe, and awesome tamper!

 

[photoman13]

That guitar is sweet!

 

[ejames]

Very nice! I like that wood!

 

[captainprophesy]

wow... thats a nice tamper, man I cant wait too see more ... and the guitar is sweet

 

[crk69]

Good looking guitar and the tamper is pretty awesome....

 

[sjpipesmoker]

Nice Tamper!!!

 

[bdstansel]

Holy wood grain Batman! Very nice work there Aaron.

 

[aaronbrill]

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I know I'll be making more of these, there's no shortage of wood scraps laying around the shop :wink:
@johncorosz: yes, I'd be willing to work out a swap deal but I don't want to break any forum protocol since I'm still pretty new here. As I make up a few more of these, maybe I'll hit my 50 posts and then we'll be all set!

 

[stanwellman]

That is a very nice tamper indeed.... .

If I may be so bold as to offer a suggestion: for your next tamper, cut about a third of the shell off and do not use lacquer of any sort. Buff the wood and apply wax only. That will allow natural coloring due to use.... . Just my 2 cents.... .

 

[photoman13]

Yeah you can cut them with a pipe cutter perfectly.

Here is one that I have and use.

 

[aaronbrill]

Thanks for the suggestions, I did experiment with a beeswax finish on another scrap but I didn't care for the feel of the wood afterwards. Is there a special way of applying it that would eliminate some of the waxy feel, or is there a better type of wax to try? I also thought of doing a light tung oil finish to seal the stain, but the wood on this one begged for a deeper finish to really make the grain pop. I used a hand-rubbed alcohol based stain to build the contrast similar to what I expect is done with pipes. What type of final finish is typically used on a pipe?
I did trim a good deal of length off the rifle cartridge using a cutter similar to what you pictured, but I could certainly trim extra length off to make it more aesthetically pleasing if that's the case.