Making a Bent Bulldog Pipe — Pipemaking from Start to Finish

This time around, I wanted to show you all how to create a slightly more complicated classic shape than I did in my billiard video. The bent bulldog, or Rhodesian, has been around for more than a hundred years and is a little tricky to make well because of the diamond shaped shank. This introduces a problem with the internal drilling as the shape of the stummel’s bottom is often too thin in older factory production versions. In mine, I alter the drilling to turn the bowl shape one one axis and drill the chamber on another—which solves the problem, though it takes some patience to keep the alignment true. Once the pipe comes off the lathe, I roughly shape it with a grinding disk before machining the mouthpiece out of ebonite. Then comes the next part of the shaping process in which the mouthpiece and the briar remain united throughout. This is critical when working on flush-fitting mouthpieces like this pipe. The shape is roughly shaped, and then refined with higher and higher grits of sanding wheels. Next I refine the shape further with files and sandpaper again. The briar portion is taken to 220gr since it will be sandblasted, while the mouthpiece is finished to 1000gr before polishing. Then the pipe is blasted, stained, and finished on the polishing wheels. I make these videos rarely enough that I forget camera settings in between my filming sessions and managed to have the audio recording volume too low on one of the cameras. So instead of listening to the sounds of the workshop, you’ll have to deal with the joyful noises of license-free music. Or you could just turn the volume down. Machinery Recommendations (not exactly the same as mine, but good quality and can be used for pipemaking): 10x22 Metalworking Lathe: https://amzn.to/3Pxwmzo Quick Change Tool Post & Holders: https://amzn.to/3B4r0r9 The Smallest Bandsaw I'd recommend for cutting briar: https://amzn.to/3yR734F A much better Bandsaw equivalent to the one in my videos: https://amzn.to/3IT8J1V Sanding and Buffing Arbor System: https://amzn.to/3B3H4cR 7" Shaping Disk Backing plate: https://amzn.to/3PqR5Fm 7" 36gr Grinding Disks: https://amzn.to/3oicLrb Rough File Used to Shape Mouthpiece: https://amzn.to/3aWbYcn Fine File Used on Mouthpiece: https://amzn.to/3OkC2vG Swiss File set used on Mouthpiece Slot: https://amzn.to/3OkY3KS As always, please visit my links to see what I'm up to currently, buy pipes, gear, or to learn pipemaking from me in person: https://linktr.ee/jalanpipes