New Hose Preview

[Scalliwag]

Thanks Stuie! Good idea GNR. I will piddle with those ideas. I'm following your thought on a carving coming up above the bend.
I cannot believe I forgot to mention this here because this is pretty badass. I talked to a couple of guys that do hardcore custom laser engraving. They do acrylic, wood, metal, and glass. REALLY nice work. I talked to them about doing a lot of different things and I threw an idea I had out there and they said they could do this; Take beer bottles and replace the paper label with a laser engraved version of the label. Imagine the Shiner hookah with lights in the base below each bottle lighting up the etching!!! Major effin ARRRRRR!!!!!!
Back to this though. They can etch art, names, logos, whatever you guys want. It would put a short delay for that but well worth the while.

So all of you crazy ass graphics guys that want to get your artwork onto handles or whatever we have the hookup I do believe. These guys are in Sherman which is probably 90 miles or so I have to mail stuff back and forth

[Hippo_Master]

Consider it bought.

[mustang_steve]

....the thoughts of a laser etched aluminum and wood bent-tip hose is so awesome....I would without a doubt buy one.

[Victim026]

All I'm waiting on is to hear pricing and I'll be ready to place an order....

[Charley]

that is the best hose i have ever seen when you release them I am going to order at least 5. and i love that turquoise on the handle. you sir are a genius.

[gunsboy]

This looks like an awesome hose scalli you are a genius.

It is probably a personal opinion, but the blue parts could be of a color that matches the extension or even the wood that would be perfect.

I am truly impressed. I want one, I want one, I want one, I want one.

[joytron]

you sir are a genius!


the mosaic looks amazing, cant wait to see more

[BigSexyPanda]

Thanks Stuie! Good idea GNR. I will piddle with those ideas. I'm following your thought on a carving coming up above the bend.
I cannot believe I forgot to mention this here because this is pretty badass. I talked to a couple of guys that do hardcore custom laser engraving. They do acrylic, wood, metal, and glass. REALLY nice work. I talked to them about doing a lot of different things and I threw an idea I had out there and they said they could do this; Take beer bottles and replace the paper label with a laser engraved version of the label. Imagine the Shiner hookah with lights in the base below each bottle lighting up the etching!!! Major effin ARRRRRR!!!!!!
Back to this though. They can etch art, names, logos, whatever you guys want. It would put a short delay for that but well worth the while.

So all of you crazy ass graphics guys that want to get your artwork onto handles or whatever we have the hookup I do believe. These guys are in Sherman which is probably 90 miles or so I have to mail stuff back and forth

That sounds awesome. With the mouthpiece being a larger curved piece, definitely makes a lot of space to engrave some cool stuff on there.

[Scalliwag]

Damn, you guys are way too generous with throwing around the word "genius"!!! I appreciate the compliments but Ms. Scalli would be the first to say she sure as hell did not marry a genius
Even dumbasses like me get lucky and today was a VERY good day. Son-of-a-bitch I have to get the herb stuff going though. Larry gears up for this and with as much as he has on the lie I'm obligated to getting this going quick. But I'm obligated on the herbal project as well. I'm very happy that I have finally learned to delegate things to other people. It's generally not my nature.
"If you wanna get a job done right do it yourself" is a term I think I have taken beyond the orginal intent. So this is very new to me. It's not that I've never tried but I've just not had the luck as I have had recently with focused passionate people as what has happened recenty. This has very much overwhelmed me. I did not expect to find someone like Larry that would put so much faith into me no longer than we have known each other.
Diane is priceless as well as you guys are about to see (unless you cheated and already looked at the pics! )

During my breaks at work I came up with a great way to utilize time that is otherwise wasted. I can't physically work on projects. So if ou are following my ramblings very closely you know about the laser engravers I hooked up with. Good guys from El Salvador. Really sharp. Ones owns a restaurant BTW as well as the engraving business.
Last night I got to thinking that I really needed an artist to design sme stuff and maybe do some straight up hookah art so I posted an ad on Craigslist.
Well several people replied and the one that really stood out was a guy named Brandon that has done work for Hookah-Shisha.com folks. How cool is that? So I call him on the way home from work and we talked quite awhile. He seems like a very talented artist that works in charcoal, paint, etc. and is familiar with the hookah world.
I tod him about some of the ideas I had for hookah art as well as graphics in general.
Imagine a pirate ship anchored in the distance and the pirates on a beach smoking hookahs with the middle eastern locals circa 1600 Oh well another day for that whole diatribe.
For now I got 1000 feet of hose and Diane's first batch of covers arrived. Holy shit the mottled color that makes me think of snakeskin really pulls together what I wanted with this first hose

I know several peeps did not think that the blue pieces really fit in as well as what they would've done. But to me this was a Southwestern design, sorta native American. Pulling some culture together in a sense.
While I'll certainly admit I see as well as know that Larry has some much more receptive concepts for your viewing pleasures that as the reasoning behind the method to my madness on the first endeavor here. That hose is MINE MINE MINE anyways although we will duplicate it if requested. It is 16 inches long with the bend included!!! It is so MUCH lighter than I expected. The thick walled aluminum tubing helps on that.
I am looking forward to getting some of the locals over to smoke and review these now. So tell me what you guys think of Diane's work guys. I am sending her back next week with yards and yards and yards of fabric so I hope ya like it!!! Edited April 2, 2009 by Scalliwag

[Scalliwag]

Video of the hose on it's first session http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMve5QtUpYw

[Rani]

The workmanship is beautiful but I'm going to throw my artistic 2-cents in (since you're asking - and yeah, that'll teach ya!)....... With so many pieces it's not quite pulling together for me artistically. My suggestions are -

Option 1) Reduce the number of wood pieces and make them larger with only one or two turquoise pieces in between. By breaking up the length of the material pieces you keep it interesting.
Option 2) If you're going to use more than two materials, use the third not only as the tip, but as narrow spacers in between the other two materials. For example from tip: Marble, wood, narrow marble spacer, turquoise, narrow marble spacer, wood, for as many patterns down the length as you choose.
Option 3) Metal spacers that match the hose clamp where it attaches.

Again the workmanship is gorgeous, the materials look beautiful together, but I think artistically it needs just a touch of refinement. And yeah, I'm still on the list to buy!

'Rani

[Scalliwag]

The workmanship is beautiful but I'm going to throw my artistic 2-cents in (since you're asking - and yeah, that'll teach ya!)....... With so many pieces it's not quite pulling together for me artistically. My suggestions are -

Option 1) Reduce the number of wood pieces and make them larger with only one or two turquoise pieces in between. By braking up the length of the material pieces you keep it interesting.
Option 2) If you're going to use more than two materials, use the third not only as the tip, but as narrow spacers in between the other two materials. For example from tip: Marble, wood, narrow marble spacer, turquoise, narrow marble spacer, wood, for as many patterns down the length as you choose.
Option 3) Metal spacers that match the hose clamp where it attaches.

Again the workmanship is gorgeous, the meaterials look beautiful together, but I think artistically it needs just a touch of refinement.

'Rani

Thanks Rani! It just needs a ladies touch Hopefully we can get the software going soon for the custom designs you can play with. This first design is much more an appeasement to me than anything.
I can be a little strongwilled and selfish and this was the result. Odds are damn good you guys can do a lot better on design than me.
The nice thing now is that everybody can see the potential and the sky is the limit from here

[indian_villager]

Dude those hoses are absolutely gorgeous. Would you be willing to sell me just some of that tubing? I think I asked you this before but didnt get a clear answer....or I am having troubles remembering things.

[Rani]

The workmanship is beautiful but I'm going to throw my artistic 2-cents in (since you're asking - and yeah, that'll teach ya!)....... With so many pieces it's not quite pulling together for me artistically. My suggestions are -

Option 1) Reduce the number of wood pieces and make them larger with only one or two turquoise pieces in between. By braking up the length of the material pieces you keep it interesting.
Option 2) If you're going to use more than two materials, use the third not only as the tip, but as narrow spacers in between the other two materials. For example from tip: Marble, wood, narrow marble spacer, turquoise, narrow marble spacer, wood, for as many patterns down the length as you choose.
Option 3) Metal spacers that match the hose clamp where it attaches.

Again the workmanship is gorgeous, the meaterials look beautiful together, but I think artistically it needs just a touch of refinement.

'Rani

Thanks Rani! It just needs a ladies touch Hopefully we can get the software going soon for the custom designs you can play with. This first design is much more an appeasement to me than anything.
I can be a little strongwilled and selfish and this was the result. Odds are damn good you guys can do a lot better on design than me.
The nice thing now is that everybody can see the potential and the sky is the limit from here

Software is a good thing, but may I make a suggestion? Get a long bolt like is used through trusses (up to 1' long) and start mixing and playing with the pieces (stacking them on the bolt like beads) to see how they look together. Just play with them until you get combinations you like. Custom orders are going to be great, but you're going to want easily turned out standards too. If you put together 3-5/6 designs as standards for stock, then those can be at a regular price with the custom orders having a premium price and a longer lead time. That way your guy isn't just waiting for custom orders but will be able to build stock for you. Keeps your guy working and you can outsource the stock orders to the various onlines sites you're willing to do business with. Good luck because I think you're on to a great idea!

'Rani

[redjako]

....the thoughts of a laser etched aluminum and wood bent-tip hose is so awesome....I would without a doubt buy one.

I'd be down for that...at a premium price too Nammors at sometimes 30 bucks always need fking super glue.

< not a fan of turquoise though.

[Codename067]

As nice as these handles are, I would never come close to using them.

They just wouldn't be ideal seeing how I smoke rather often.

Now take a nice KM hose and make something like that out of it, and I'll pay you to make me one

[Scalliwag]

As nice as these handles are, I would never come close to using them.

They just wouldn't be ideal seeing how I smoke rather often.

Now take a nice KM hose and make something like that out of it, and I'll pay you to make me one

I'm not following why you think you could not smoke out of these often?

[Barnaby]

I see the potential, but I'm not digging them unfortunately. It doesn't seem to come together for me. I'm not a fan of turquoise as it is, but even if that was a different color, I still wouldn't think its what I'd want.

It looks too Frankensteined to me. Like, here's a pretty wood bead, and a pretty turqouise bead, and a marble tip, and we throw it all together. Its not becoming more than the sum of its parts.

If I'm going to be sporting a custom wooden handle, I want to see the craftsman ship of the wood. Something more ornate. I can't explain how to do it to achieve this, but I just know by looking at it, it doesn't scream, holy shit, now that's a good looking handle!

Do you have any sketches of any other designs to show, to give more feelers out without using materials? I definately think there is something to be had, but this prototype is definately a rough draft to me.

Hate to go against the flow, but I just have to keep it real for you Scali, and not jump on the bandwagon. Keep it up though, I think you could have something big here.

[Scalliwag]

I see the potential, but I'm not digging them unfortunately. It doesn't seem to come together for me. I'm not a fan of turquoise as it is, but even if that was a different color, I still wouldn't think its what I'd want.

It looks too Frankensteined to me. Like, here's a pretty wood bead, and a pretty turqouise bead, and a marble tip, and we throw it all together. Its not becoming more than the sum of its parts.

If I'm going to be sporting a custom wooden handle, I want to see the craftsman ship of the wood. Something more ornate. I can't explain how to do it to achieve this, but I just know by looking at it, it doesn't scream, holy shit, now that's a good looking handle!

Do you have any sketches of any other designs to show, to give more feelers out without using materials? I definately think there is something to be had, but this prototype is definately a rough draft to me.

Hate to go against the flow, but I just have to keep it real for you Scali, and not jump on the bandwagon. Keep it up though, I think you could have something big here.

I appreciate honesty like that. Not everyone likes the same hookahs so I'm sure we will have some you like and probably some more that you don't.
Even the most popular hookahs have those that don't like them for numerous reasons. Others have voiced about not liking turqouise or wanting more ornate work.
Now just because I am not as crazy about ornate pieces definately doe not mean we won't be making them. Larry would quit on me. He wanted to do just that on this handle but since the first one is definately one I'm keeping it was geared for me.
So it's like clothes, cars, anything else. When a majority thinks something is not very nice is when I really have to worry. We have ornate coming bro.

We're just going to make several designs of pieces and give them reference numbers for now. Nothing can replace an actual turned part to give a true effect. We kinda hand draw when we discuss making something a certain way but the drawings are just reference and not much to look at.
I'm having him cut angles and contours and radiuses and burn fine lines onto the woods.
Some woods like mesquite would not even look nice to me turned the same as this first handle. The way the bocote has the lines is the main reason for that.
You want ornate? You're gonna get it.

[JDHarding]

Nice hose. The tip looks like it's marble. I like that blue silk (or is that velvet?) cover there. Very smexy. I'd like to know the cost of it.

[Barnaby]

I appreciate honesty like that. Not everyone likes the same hookahs so I'm sure we will have some you like and probably some more that you don't.
Even the most popular hookahs have those that don't like them for numerous reasons. Others have voiced about not liking turqouise or wanting more ornate work.
Now just because I am not as crazy about ornate pieces definately doe not mean we won't be making them. Larry would quit on me. He wanted to do just that on this handle but since the first one is definately one I'm keeping it was geared for me.
So it's like clothes, cars, anything else. When a majority thinks something is not very nice is when I really have to worry. We have ornate coming bro.

We're just going to make several designs of pieces and give them reference numbers for now. Nothing can replace an actual turned part to give a true effect. We kinda hand draw when we discuss making something a certain way but the drawings are just reference and not much to look at.
I'm having him cut angles and contours and radiuses and burn fine lines onto the woods.
Some woods like mesquite would not even look nice to me turned the same as this first handle. The way the bocote has the lines is the main reason for that.
You want ornate? You're gonna get it.

Hey, I have to give it honest. A man of your statue would expect nothing less. We all have different tastes, and that will be the beauty of your hoses. The ability to make them suite the owner. Keep up the good work, everything is coming together well so far. I'm interest in seeing some of the more intricate designs you have planned. Can any carving be done on the wood, or just burning? It would be need to have a carved design on it, give it a 3d effect. Kind of like those sandalwood indian boxes you can find, like this http://images.oneofakindantiques.com/5209_...india_box_1.jpg, or something like it. Would be neat to have some pretty scroll work carved into the handle in that kind of style. Would go with the etching on my Syrian Chiller..

[Scalliwag]

Nice hose. The tip looks like it's marble. I like that blue silk (or is that velvet?) cover there. Very smexy. I'd like to know the cost of it.

Larry has the last of his new equipment coming in today. So he should get a good feel over the weekend on how much time it takes which is what will determine most of the cost.

Hey, I have to give it honest. A man of your statue would expect nothing less. We all have different tastes, and that will be the beauty of your hoses. The ability to make them suite the owner. Keep up the good work, everything is coming together well so far. I'm interest in seeing some of the more intricate designs you have planned. Can any carving be done on the wood, or just burning? It would be need to have a carved design on it, give it a 3d effect. Kind of like those sandalwood indian boxes you can find, like this http://images.oneofakindantiques.com/5209_...india_box_1.jpg, or something like it. Would be neat to have some pretty scroll work carved into the handle in that kind of style. Would go with the etching on my Syrian Chiller..

That kind of carving is a different process. I have an Uncle that carves and does amazing stuff. But it's time consuming and his stuff sells for a lot. I will find some pics of his stuff and post later to give you an idea of just how intense his work is.

[Woodsytheowl]

Kind of like those sandalwood indian boxes you can find, like this http://images.oneofakindantiques.com/5209_...india_box_1.jpg, or something like it. Would be neat to have some pretty scroll work carved into the handle in that kind of style. Would go with the etching on my Syrian Chiller..

That would be incredible.

[Giant Ninja Robot]

I see the potential, but I'm not digging them unfortunately. It doesn't seem to come together for me. I'm not a fan of turquoise as it is, but even if that was a different color, I still wouldn't think its what I'd want.

It looks too Frankensteined to me. Like, here's a pretty wood bead, and a pretty turqouise bead, and a marble tip, and we throw it all together. Its not becoming more than the sum of its parts.

If I'm going to be sporting a custom wooden handle, I want to see the craftsman ship of the wood. Something more ornate. I can't explain how to do it to achieve this, but I just know by looking at it, it doesn't scream, holy shit, now that's a good looking handle!

Do you have any sketches of any other designs to show, to give more feelers out without using materials? I definately think there is something to be had, but this prototype is definately a rough draft to me.

Hate to go against the flow, but I just have to keep it real for you Scali, and not jump on the bandwagon. Keep it up though, I think you could have something big here.

I appreciate honesty like that. Not everyone likes the same hookahs so I'm sure we will have some you like and probably some more that you don't.
Even the most popular hookahs have those that don't like them for numerous reasons. Others have voiced about not liking turqouise or wanting more ornate work.
Now just because I am not as crazy about ornate pieces definately doe not mean we won't be making them. Larry would quit on me. He wanted to do just that on this handle but since the first one is definately one I'm keeping it was geared for me.
So it's like clothes, cars, anything else. When a majority thinks something is not very nice is when I really have to worry. We have ornate coming bro.

We're just going to make several designs of pieces and give them reference numbers for now. Nothing can replace an actual turned part to give a true effect. We kinda hand draw when we discuss making something a certain way but the drawings are just reference and not much to look at.
I'm having him cut angles and contours and radiuses and burn fine lines onto the woods.
Some woods like mesquite would not even look nice to me turned the same as this first handle. The way the bocote has the lines is the main reason for that.
You want ornate? You're gonna get it.

NICE. That's a much more eloquent way of putting what I was trying to communicate earlier on. I really like the first model, but am SUPER excited to see some more ornate woodcarving done that might lead more fluidly into the acrylic portions.

Scalli you've really inspired me to look into making my own handle. I think I'm going to try my hand at using a length of bamboo with a pipe of wood or metal fed through it, and possibly some sort of ornate wood bored out for a tip. Bamboo comes in segments so I'm thinking I can use 1 segment which is closed at both ends and bore the right sized hole for an airtight feed, that way smoke isnt leaking through the bamboo. I dont know if that woiuld even be neccesary, I don't think bamboo is porous at all, but haven't looked into it.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[jezter6]

Ninja:

I was thinking of buying a lathe to make some custom tap handles for my kegger - but this sounds like another good reason to learn to turn the wood.

Can you just drill a hole thru the wood and smoke through it? Or is it lined with something???