To fill or not to fill? That’s the question.

[UB 40]

To fill or not to fill? (Shakespeare)

Does this bowl need a filler? This is another home made of mine I am working on right now. It’s the first attempt to shape another classic, a Bulldog. The upper part of the bowl I did in August on an old wood lathe, a friend gave to me.

To be honest I lost control over a few aspects of the pipe. The draught hole is out of center, and so is the drilling of the chamber, I did on a drill press later.

Also I forgot about planning the dimensions before beginning work. Now the chamber is really deep about 47 millimetres at 18 millimetres radius. I set it aside a few months.



But still I wanted to build some experience in forming the Bulldogs square shank. Luckily I had the preformed stem, which gave me the outlines of the square to follow on the sanding disk. So far, so well.

Now after several hours filing an sanding it turns out quite nice. The cheap briar I bought once in dozen pieces for a few bucks turned out not so nice. It’s full of pits and scratches even if there is a lot going on grain wise, bird eyes etc.

I even thought about rusticating the stummel. I want to stain it in a deep dark brown.

What do you think? To fill or not to fill? And if the answer is yes, what kind of filler would you prefer? Briar dust with superglue?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

There is a Japanese approach to art called wabi-sabi that embraces flaws:

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It might be kind of cool to leave it raw, unstained, and just let it naturally darken over time like a couple of lines released by Savinelli and Stanwell. If the grain was amazing, I could see wanting to fill a few imperfections to try to preserve the overall beauty, but, since this has pits and scratches, why not just run with that and let the pipe be what it is, instead of disguising or hiding these qualities?

 

[bullet08]

Then there is kintsugi. It applies to pottery, but might also add to pipes.

Kintsugi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[huntertrw]

UB 40:

I believe that any fill will always look like just that, a fill. Were it me, I would leave them alone, and go ahead and finish the pipe.

For a first attempt at this shape, you've done a nice job. I hope that it proves to be a good smoker.

 

[UB 40]

There is a Japanese approach to art called wabi-sabi that embraces flaws:

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It might be kind of cool to leave it raw, unstained, and just let it naturally darken over time like a couple of lines released by Savinelli and Stanwell. If the grain was amazing, I could see wanting to fill a few imperfections to try to preserve the overall beauty, but, since this has pits and scratches, why not just run with that and let the pipe be what it is, instead of disguising or hiding these qualities?

I like worn out things a lot, as you can see looking at my kitchen table. I love imperfection of surfaces. And this pipe project turned out to be imperfect from the first drilling onwards.

Maybe I go for it without filling.

Staining may be another thing. I’ve got a few pipes I left in their natural state. The briar darkens quite beautiful once polished.

You know I just want to widen up my abilities to some extent. As I told maybe that’s the time to get creative and playful with the flaws. Partly rustcation something like that.
Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[UB 40]

Then there is kintsugi. It applies to pottery, but might also add to pipes.

Kintsugi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Also this is a great concept, you can’t hardly get in nowadays western industrial society. E.g. a TV Screen with repair patches.

 

[UB 40]

UB 40:

I believe that any fill will always look like just that, a fill. Were it me, I would leave them alone, and go ahead and finish the pipe.

For a first attempt at this shape, you've done a nice job. I hope that it proves to be a good smoker.

True a fill will ever be nothing but a fill, and I am sure that I would be watching those spots forever.

Thanks for the compliment, making a pipe is a lot of fun. Smoke wise I am not sure I am going to like it. This pipe is big, I prefer smaller sizes. Another drawback is the preformed stem. The Austrian Pipe maker David Wagner, he died to soon, said he could hear if a pipe is going to smoke right. A hollow or deep sound signals, that it will be good. A higher whistle like sound tells about some problems. This one whistles.

I think the readymade stem might be the problem. I think I am going to widen it somehow for a smooth airflow. The drilling in the stummel is about 4 millimetres, in my experience this is the most comfortable draw. The stem is about 3 mm.

 

[huntertrw]

UB 40:

I believe that you (and Mr. Wagner) are on the right track in opening the airway. In another thread, I posted the following today:

Forums friend Rick Newcombe is a strong advocate of opening pipes' airways in order to improve draw (and to make them easier to clean, by the way), and detailed his ideas in a article titled Your Pipes Should Have an Easy Draw which appeared in the Fall 1997 issue of Pipes and Tobaccos magazine. He recommends opening them to between 4.1 and 4.3 millimeters (that's 0.161 and 0.167 inches, respectively).

I took his advice and used a 5/32" (0.156 inch) drill-bit to open the airway on an estate Chacom Carat, and was amazed at how much better it smoked! Much easier to clean, too...

Please let us know how this pipe smokes once your have finished it.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

This is an interesting topic.
I for one hate fillers. You can never hide em and my eye always gets drawn to them.
I was looking at old French pipes the other day and came across some with flaws that were not filled. And I'll tell ya, it didn't bother me one bit. It looked like wood - a substance harvested from the ground. It still had beautiful grain and color, but a small flaw here or there. Yet, the pipes remained elegant and great looking.
It's like when I turn bowls. I leave "worm holes" or flaws unfilled because it's just a part of the wood. If it's small enough and I have some fine dust that matches, I'll fill a crack or small imperfection with CA glue and said dust. But usually I leave em and it adds a rustication that I like.

Pipe is coming along great, good work man and best of luck. I'll look forward to the final product.

 

[kcghost]

I really dislike fills as a consumer and would prefer the pipe to be left alone.

 

[didimauw]

View attachment 196519

To fill or not to fill? (Shakespeare)

Does this bowl need a filler? This is another home made of mine I am working on right now. It’s the first attempt to shape another classic, a Bulldog. The upper part of the bowl I did in August on an old wood lathe, a friend gave to me.

To be honest I lost control over a few aspects of the pipe. The draught hole is out of center, and so is the drilling of the chamber, I did on a drill press later.

Also I forgot about planning the dimensions before beginning work. Now the chamber is really deep about 47 millimetres at 18 millimetres radius. I set it aside a few months.

View attachment 196520

But still I wanted to build some experience in forming the Bulldogs square shank. Luckily I had the preformed stem, which gave me the outlines of the square to follow on the sanding disk. So far, so well.

Now after several hours filing an sanding it turns out quite nice. The cheap briar I bought once in dozen pieces for a few bucks turned out not so nice. It’s full of pits and scratches even if there is a lot going on grain wise, bird eyes etc.

I even thought about rusticating the stummel. I want to stain it in a deep dark brown.

What do you think? To fill or not to fill? And if the answer is yes, what kind of filler would you prefer? Briar dust with superglue?

I like doing the briardust with super glue. However! I've learned to mix them together first, and make a patch first. I don't like filling them first with dust and then applying super glue over it. The dust is much brighter, and the super glue won't take stain.

I just went over my Rossi that after taking the varnish off years ago discovered about ten HUGE ugly fills. I finally picked all the putty out and filled them. The first one I did, came out brighter than the fill itself. Untill I started making the dust/glue mixture did they start blending in with the grain.

 

[sablebrush52]

There is a Japanese approach to art called wabi-sabi that embraces flaws:

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It might be kind of cool to leave it raw, unstained, and just let it naturally darken over time like a couple of lines released by Savinelli and Stanwell. If the grain was amazing, I could see wanting to fill a few imperfections to try to preserve the overall beauty, but, since this has pits and scratches, why not just run with that and let the pipe be what it is, instead of disguising or hiding these qualities?

Embrace the flaws is a smart part of being. It's what makes something unique and interesting in a way that "perfection" - a bullshit term at best - does not.

 

[UB 40]

UB 40:

I believe that you (and Mr. Wagner) are on the right track in opening the airway. In another thread, I posted the following today:



Please let us know how this pipe smokes once your have finished it.

I will!

 

[UB 40]

This is an interesting topic.
I for one hate fillers. You can never hide em and my eye always gets drawn to them.
I was looking at old French pipes the other day and came across some with flaws that were not filled. And I'll tell ya, it didn't bother me one bit. It looked like wood - a substance harvested from the ground. It still had beautiful grain and color, but a small flaw here or there. Yet, the pipes remained elegant and great looking.
It's like when I turn bowls. I leave "worm holes" or flaws unfilled because it's just a part of the wood. If it's small enough and I have some fine dust that matches, I'll fill a crack or small imperfection with CA glue and said dust. But usually I leave em and it adds a rustication that I like.

Pipe is coming along great, good work man and best of luck. I'll look forward to the final product.

You know, I am looking on live most of the time in an ambiguous way.

When it comes to craftsmanship I understand why. My older brother has been earning for his architecture study as woodworker, setting up roofs and modern wooden climate neutral houses. My father was a bricklayer in his youth. And even working in an open area coal mine he built a few houses.

I often have been working with both of them. My brother is the perfect guy a tenths of a millimetre counts to him even building a roof framing even if it would take forever. My father with a decade of experience how to do things right was not that critical when it comes to measuring, he likes to work with certain tolerance. And he is a lot more efficient that way.

Perfection is like a curse. I tend to fit things in my fathers way. Maybe paired with a kind of artistic approach my mother always tried to induced to her kids.

So I look at fillings in both ways. I am not shure what I will do, but I am shure, that this is not my last Bulldog. But it’s one to learn a lot on.

 

[UB 40]

I like doing the briardust with super glue. However! I've learned to mix them together first, and make a patch first. I don't like filling them first with dust and then applying super glue over it. The dust is much brighter, and the super glue won't take stain.

I just went over my Rossi that after taking the varnish off years ago discovered about ten HUGE ugly fills. I finally picked all the putty out and filled them. The first one I did, came out brighter than the fill itself. Untill I started making the dust/glue mixture did they start blending in with the grain.

Does a glue dust mixture take stain? Thanks for the information.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

You know, I am looking on live most of the time in an ambiguous way.

When it comes to craftsmanship I understand why. My older brother has been earning for his architecture study as woodworker, setting up roofs and modern wooden climate neutral houses. My father was a bricklayer in his youth. And even working in an open area coal mine he built a few houses.

I often have been working with both of them. My brother is the perfect guy a tenths of a millimetre counts to him even building a roof framing even if it would take forever. My father with a decade of experience how to do things right was not that critical when it comes to measuring, he likes to work with certain tolerance. And he is a lot more efficient that way.

Perfection is like a curse. I tend to fit things in my fathers way. Maybe paired with a kind of artistic approach my mother always tried to induced to her kids.

So I look at fillings in both ways. I am not shure what I will do, but I am shure, that this is not my last Bulldog. But it’s one to learn a lot on.

That's an optimistic outlook on it.
I was a stone Mason who built old style chimneys, then became a concrete worker. Did this for a decade. Both taught me the importance of precision, but the gift of tolerance. Just all depends on the project at hand

 

[didimauw]

Does a glue dust mixture take stain? Thanks for the information.

Yes, the mixture does, but glue on top of dust does not.

 

[UB 40]

This was the last stage, before I decided to fill the two main holes in the stummel. Still there are a few marks in the stem, which I left as they are.

 

[UB 40]

And here’s the pipe, stained with dark brown leather stain. I filled up the holes as @didimauw described. I just wanted to learn something new to me in pipe making. Fillings with dust and super glue is difficult to control in its hues it turns out dark brown in this case. I stained it twice to achieve what I had in mind. Now it’s one of my darkest pipes ever. But taking a closer look in sunlight there’s still a lot going on. Besides the wood showing off some decent holes it’s a nice peace of ebauchon.

The finish on the stummel is just polishing by hand with a last coat of furniture wax (do not have my workshop as I do in the northern hemisphere with buffing wheel compounds and carnauba.

The stem is sanded with grid from 400 upwards to 2000 and finished with nail polishing accessories and a last buff with liquid brass polish. „Brasso“ has done the job as good as any wheel would’ve done it.

 

[Brendan]

Love it in the sunlight, hope it smokes as good as it looks!

How do you like that Scottish Mixture?
I keep a tin handy in my kitchen for a quick, change of pace smoke. I get the Scotch whisky flavour in the after-taste.

Great looking pipe, fills don't worry me none, unless they are a different colour to the stain.