Making a pipe

[Rick M]

I've wanted to do this for a long time and Flootsie's recents posts have spurred me on. Normally one would use well seasoned wood but I have these pear offcuts and decided to turn them green, dry, then touch up as necessary.

Started by making and printing a design for a poker style pipe which looks like this (not mine).




Started by cutting down a block, gluing on the pattern and mounting on lathe. I really had no idea how big it should be so I found a one for sale and copied the measurements. Seems fairly hefty to me but what the heck do I know.

In the last pic you can see the airway ended up about 1/8" off center inside the bowl, hopefully that doesn't affect how it smokes. This one I free hand drilled, next time I'll either drill it on the lathe or use the drill press.

Sanding was a waste of time I guess since I still need to carve the bottom and boil to dry but it only took a few minutes. I'll post more updates as they happen.

 

[Mark Stewart]

interesting to see this in process thank you for the demo.

 

[Rick M]

Started whittling.

 

[Weekendturner]

Very cool. I can't tell the grain orientation. Is the "bowl" end-grain or is the neck? In there a reason for doing one versus the other?

 

[Rick M]

I can't remember exactly, I believe the end grain ran horizontally through the sides. According to pipe forums, grain orientation makes no difference.

Some updates: It has since gone oval while drying and I never did get around to boiling. I made so many mistakes on this one I probably won't finish it but just chalk it up to a learning experience. Got another blank ready to go but other things came up and I haven't gotten back to pipes yet.