Work in progress Freehand

[bluenoser]

I've been messing around on a freehand the past couple days. Have it just about ready to finish just need to do some final sanding, might hit it with a bit more rusticating, dye and buff it. Mostly shaped with the rotary tool and sand paper so it's much slower than hitting the lathe but love how it's turning out. Might be a week or 2 before I can finish it as I can't get my hands on the black and light brown dye I want for it right away so figured I'd slap up a couple pics of how it's looking as of right now.

[dj1340]

Looking really good, I expect the color will bring out the grain nicely.

[Desertlifter]

Very nice - you're an animal. It takes me months to finish one!

[bluenoser]

Tried re bending the stem tonight to get a better radius to the curve, still not perfect but looks much better now. Might do a little more trimming off where the shank meets the bowl before I get to dying/buffing.

[Bruck]

That's really nice looking, Blake!

PS, in case you haven't already consulted it, here's a great resource I've found for instruction and inspiration on pipe finishing.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Making#Finishing

[bluenoser]

I haven't come across that before, I'll give it a look. Thanks!

[Scott W.]

Wow, that looks really good man

[Haebar]

That looks really nice! You have some skill at that, pipemaking.

[cbr310]

Good job!

[bluenoser]

Did a little more messing around with it tonight. Took the "web" in some around where the shank meets the bowl to define the bowl a bit better, gave a little more definition to the rustication and did some more sanding. Very Happy with how it's looking. Might try to bring in the sides of the stem a bit more to thin it out some, haven't decided yet for sure, but do think it's a bit wide.