I've been doing band repairs for locals through our local B&M for over a year now, as well as for a couple of forum members, and I've also been going through and customizing my own pipes with sculpted bands. Bradly (tbradsim1) contacted me last week about making a custom band for one of his beautiful S Bangs. It already had a repair band on it, but the cracked shank ran down the front of the stem with the repair leaving it to be seen. Bradly and I tossed about ideas, stone ideas and suck, but then he sent me a navy emblem... and the lightbulb went off.
I come from a long line of Navy men. I have pictures of my great grandfather in his uniform, my father's and my grandfather's medals and insignia on my walls, a lot of uniforms in storage, and special letters concerning my natural father's service in Vietnam, from which he never returned. So, it was a special honor to be asked to make a band that would represent Brad's service in the Navy.
He also had asked for an aquamarine stone to represent his birth month, and to me the aquamarine represents water also. So, I had to work the stone that I cut for this into the design. The band also had to cover the crack in the front, but not cover the nomenclature on the back of the pipe stem.
The anchor was carved from an ingot of sterling silver, and it was soldered to the band, with 18k wire worked in as the ropes to give the design another color for interest. I textured the band and added a patina, which quickly ages the metal. I thought this would pop the design out more.
The stone was bezel set into the back of the band, to give the it interest all of the way around.
But, wow, what an honor to make this for a veteran and for an S Bang at that. I love the way the Danish translate their own aesthetics into classic designs like this. And, the bowl is huge, as I would expect from one of Bradly's pipes, ha ha. I have handled a lot of artisan pipes in shopping at The Briary, but this was the first S Bang that I've had the pleasure of handling. It is truly a beautiful pipe, and I hope my work adds to the pipe, more than takes away. What do you think?
I come from a long line of Navy men. I have pictures of my great grandfather in his uniform, my father's and my grandfather's medals and insignia on my walls, a lot of uniforms in storage, and special letters concerning my natural father's service in Vietnam, from which he never returned. So, it was a special honor to be asked to make a band that would represent Brad's service in the Navy.
He also had asked for an aquamarine stone to represent his birth month, and to me the aquamarine represents water also. So, I had to work the stone that I cut for this into the design. The band also had to cover the crack in the front, but not cover the nomenclature on the back of the pipe stem.
The anchor was carved from an ingot of sterling silver, and it was soldered to the band, with 18k wire worked in as the ropes to give the design another color for interest. I textured the band and added a patina, which quickly ages the metal. I thought this would pop the design out more.
The stone was bezel set into the back of the band, to give the it interest all of the way around.
But, wow, what an honor to make this for a veteran and for an S Bang at that. I love the way the Danish translate their own aesthetics into classic designs like this. And, the bowl is huge, as I would expect from one of Bradly's pipes, ha ha. I have handled a lot of artisan pipes in shopping at The Briary, but this was the first S Bang that I've had the pleasure of handling. It is truly a beautiful pipe, and I hope my work adds to the pipe, more than takes away. What do you think?
I think it looks great!
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