First time finishing a briar

Sorry if this has been posted here before but, I'm about ready to stain and finish my first briar, from a pre-bored/stemmed kit. I read a little about it on pipedia, but just wanted to ask here in case you guys have some pointers or links for a first timer. I'm thinking of going off the beaten path and doing it in kelly green from this site: http://www.pipemakers.org/finishing_products.html Any tips or tricks you guys could share would be a big help!

The green will probably buff off. Did for me. I was told by someone with a lot more experience than me to use a fixative in the dye. Maybe mix it with a little shellac, wipe on, let dry, repeat. The shellac drys fairly quickly in light coats. See if that makes it hold. I will do it this way next. I don't think it would work with lacquer, the idea is to use the green shellac mix a s a layering agent to build the color, that way the first few layers will get buffed off, but some will remain along with the color.

At least that's my understanding.

Yeah green is really, really hard to do well - a very difficult "first time" finish. If you apply it and buff it the way one usually does for browns and grain-highlighting, you wind up with a brown-streaked greenish booger looking thing. So you need to topcoat with some green-tinted shellac as far as I can tell, and do as little buffing as possible. Pre-staining with Black is also not a bad plan - layer of black, sand it back, and then do green.

Thats exactly the effect I was hoping to avoid. I'm still throwing around ideas for stain color so I'm not stuck on the green thing. Possibly thinking about going with a natural finish, now that I found out that natural briar colors sort of like a meer (learn something new everyday). Anyway heres some pictures so you can see what I'm working with here, comments and criticisms welcome!

WOW! I haven't seen a lot of freehands that really caught my eye but I really like this one! Great job, and it isn't even finished!

That chunk of briar has such pretty grain I would leave it "as is" with the possible exception of a bit of wax and buffing to highlight that beautiful flame grain. I gotta agree with el guero - it is really eye catching.

Thanks! The funny thing is this shape isnt really what I set out to make in the first place. Originally I was hoping for something like this, with the flared sides, and a larger hole through the middle: http://www.ebay.com/itm/pipe-DON-FL...665?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337033cb49

Once I got into the block though it started to take me in this direction with the sort of danish shape and the narrow connector between the bowl and shank. I'm liking this shape a lot more than my original idea, feels great in the hand!

Not trying to be contrary. I would at least stain with brown leather dye and sand off...you think it's pretty now...wait til the grain POPS!

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner

I don't know but I'm thinking a black stain (buffed back to show the grain) on this pipe would look amazing! Is black harder/easier than green?

But yeah, at this stage, it's all hard (buffing, sanding, turning, etc.) so, maybe find out what's easiest and go with that.

I think thats probably the best idea, I do love the grain and highlighting it would make it even better. Think I'm going to go with fiebings medium brown shade. I'll post some pics when shes all done!

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Some of you probably could have heard my jaw hit the floor. My wife bought me a kit that I haven't started on yet, but that bridge is just what I was planning to do too! LOL I have a green stained pipe from one of our craftsman here, and yeah, it just doesn't work on it's own. I found most of it was coming off on my hands even though this pipe has been around for awhile.

That. Is. A. Nice. Pipe. Great work!

Whew!! That's a looker! I can't wait to see how it comes out.

I LOVE that natural "arch" that the wood takes from the stem to the top of the bowl. Awesome

I'll be finishing this one up soon, finally got my stain and carnauba wax from Pipe makers emporium. Now I just have to get myself a drill (cant afford a buffer right now) and some buffing wheels and I'll be set to finish it off.