Made Pipe #30 - The Horny Dublin

For IPSD, decided to see if I could finish a pipe that was on my bench for a few months. I did, albeit a few hours late. This is a cross between a horn and a dublin. Hence the name. I tried a lighter rustication on this one. There were too many pits to not rusticate. I hit it with some red, but it doesn't really show with the black base. Maybe next time I'll try color first then black and see what happens.

clickklack, you are really testing my visual sense of pipe-ness here. I really like the looks of this one, in the sense that it is lively, refreshing, and fun to look at. I'm not as sure about the relatively small bowl, its shallowness and slant -- with the packing leveled after a charring light, would it be too shallow for its size overall? Maybe not, but I had the question in mind. You challenge the pipe smoker with novelty and whimsy, so it's really important to reassure him/her that if they will accept the novel look they will be rewarded with a really great smoke -- always relative to the size and weight of the pipe of course. But this one really gets my attention, and I like to be challenged in my set notions. If it turned out to be a great smoker, I think it might have me hooked

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mso - Understood. This would be a nice flake pipe in my opinion. The chamber diameter is 3/4". The shallowest part of the chamber is 1" deep. With a small bit of practice, uneven bowls can be lit so that the higher edge burns first, then when it catches up to the lowest edge, things are still uniformly lit. This is easier to accomplish when the air hole is more centered in the bowl, which this pipe has. I would be extremely surprised if this one gave issues. The only downside to putting the air hole close to the bottom center of the bowl is that is more likely to clog with tobacco strands, and if you are a wet smoker, will need to pipe cleaner maintenance during the smoke to prevent back wash through the stem.

Evaluating via digital pictures is not fair to the carver or the viewer.

Obviously, the shape and the stem stand out to the eye.

The color seems to muddle appreciation for the texture.

The bowl seems drilled with a thinner back wall and is offset so that it seems it would heat less if the reverse were true, or even centering.

The topline of the bowl to shank appears less than sculptural.

I look forward to 'smoking' reviews

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newbroom - this is fair. I never really looked at the flow of the rim curve vs the shank. I can tell you that this pipe sits on its own bowl up, and it also balances and sits on its own bowl down, both without the stem touching the table. So I think it is fairly balance, just visually there isn't that sculptural line feel. The stem colors do take away overall. That is the issue when finding pits in the wood, once you rusticate dark, the stem is already cut, so changing it becomes a catch 22. As for the wall thickness difference, there is a fairly thick amount of wood left at the back wall, so I don't feel there will be any issues with heat buildup in that area. If the wall was thinner I'd be concerned. I'm more worried about uneven cake build up due to the cant of the bowl. Overall though, I wish this was able to be smooth and I could have colored the wood to better compliment the stem. I am still getting the hang of this rustication finish and I think i'll need to do it a handful more times to really understand how to get it to color properly.