Show us your homemade pipes!

[Controlled Chaos]

New one
Maybe a week old
Hand Carved Ash Stummel, Cherry Shank, and Acrylic Stem
Smokes great! Can't stop smoking it.
The ash shank was longer, but I busted it trying to bend the stem just that last little bit
Sometimes Good enough is better than busted.
I'm still pretty pleased.
View attachment 54096

That stem is out of control and I'm totally here for it. That's a cool pipe, it's got a rugged elegance

 

[KroBar]

That stem is out of control and I'm totally here for it. That's a cool pipe, it's got a rugged elegance

Thanks! I'm still smoking her every day. I'm a clencher, that bend cuts down on the leverage. Hangs well and feels light

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Torture test on Hard Maple - 500+ bowls smoked hot and hard.

I made this pipe several months ago and didn't like it at first because there are a lot of mistakes. Biggest problem is that I have the grain orientated wrong with the end grain facing front and back. You can see the darkened area toward the front and its rectangle shaped because its the exact width as the chamber diameter. These darker areas get very hot but otherwise this is a nice smoker. I started liking this pipe on the first bowl so I continued smoking it, 3 to 8 times a day for the past 3+ months, with the idea it would eventually burn through. However, the pipe has yet to burn through or otherwise change in characteristics. I do wipe the chamber and pass a cleaner through the stem and shank between bowls. Occasionally I would scrape the cake back.



Anyhow, here we are at 500+ bowls without a day's rest and figured it was time to scrape all the cake back and evaluate the damage. As you can see there is nothing but brown wood under the cake. The one exception is where the pores thin at the sides is looking dark grey but its solid as I scraped at it pretty hard. This is an area that remained a little rough after drilling because my feed rate was too fast. So its not really burn damage. I did form the radius on the rim when I first made the pipe. It has darkened mostly from tobacco tar that accumulated and seemed to offer some kind of protection because there is absolutely no charring.


So, the conventional wisdom that Hard Maple is inferior or short lived is conjecture at best. But what about taste and smell? Well, Ive never had a sour smell or taste from this pipe but I had to burn some to really find out.



Starting with kiln dried Hard Maple on the left which was the most difficult of the three to light, only gave a flame for a second and the ember burned for about 5 seconds. The smell was faint Maple and somewhat neutral.

In the center is Briar which lit fairly easy and held a flame I had to blow out. The ember burned brighter by the second until I crushed it out at 10 seconds. The smell wafting (not sniffing) into my nose was sour and slightly irritating.

On the right is Goncalo Alves which lit/burnt better than Maple but not as easily as Briar. The smell though was pleasant and slightly sweet. I was tempted to light it again and take a big whiff but then remembered that this wood is a known "sensitizer" for some and I have no knowledge of the compounds involved or if they are in the fibers or resins. Wood was from a dried and sealed turning block.

 

[jaredwyoung]

Here's a horn I recently finished up. Neutral danish oil and carnuba finish on black cherry from southwest Colorado. Stem is ebonite with a delrin tenon. Chamber is 3/4" round bottom 1.25 inches deep.

 

[Faltown]

Torture test on Hard Maple - 500+ bowls smoked hot and hard.

I made this pipe several months ago and didn't like it at first because there are a lot of mistakes. Biggest problem is that I have the grain orientated wrong with the end grain facing front and back. You can see the darkened area toward the front and its rectangle shaped because its the exact width as the chamber diameter. These darker areas get very hot but otherwise this is a nice smoker. I started liking this pipe on the first bowl so I continued smoking it, 3 to 8 times a day for the past 3+ months, with the idea it would eventually burn through. However, the pipe has yet to burn through or otherwise change in characteristics. I do wipe the chamber and pass a cleaner through the stem and shank between bowls. Occasionally I would scrape the cake back.

View attachment 55168

Anyhow, here we are at 500+ bowls without a day's rest and figured it was time to scrape all the cake back and evaluate the damage. As you can see there is nothing but brown wood under the cake. The one exception is where the pores thin at the sides is looking dark grey but its solid as I scraped at it pretty hard. This is an area that remained a little rough after drilling because my feed rate was too fast. So its not really burn damage. I did form the radius on the rim when I first made the pipe. It has darkened mostly from tobacco tar that accumulated and seemed to offer some kind of protection because there is absolutely no charring.
View attachment 55169 View attachment 55170

So, the conventional wisdom that Hard Maple is inferior or short lived is conjecture at best. But what about taste and smell? Well, Ive never had a sour smell or taste from this pipe but I had to burn some to really find out.

View attachment 55171

Starting with kiln dried Hard Maple on the left which was the most difficult of the three to light, only gave a flame for a second and the ember burned for about 5 seconds. The smell was faint Maple and somewhat neutral.

In the center is Briar which lit fairly easy and held a flame I had to blow out. The ember burned brighter by the second until I crushed it out at 10 seconds. The smell wafting (not sniffing) into my nose was sour and slightly irritating.

On the right is Goncalo Alves which lit/burnt better than Maple but not as easily as Briar. The smell though was pleasant and slightly sweet. I was tempted to light it again and take a big whiff but then remembered that this wood is a known "sensitizer" for some and I have no knowledge of the compounds involved or if they are in the fibers or resins. Wood was from a dried and sealed turning block.

Don't suppose you know the Latin of the maple you used?! I've just had a bunch of field maple felled, the Latin is Acer campestre. I've got some pretty hefty chunks, and just wondering if it worth giving a pipe or two a go!

 

[Alpine]

The hardest maple is A. nigrum, considered by some botanist a subspecies of sugar maple (A. saccharum sbsp. nigrum) and by others as A. nigrum, a definite species.

pier

 

[Muskrat]

I'm curious to see other people's pipemaking experiments.

That's some fine craftsmanship, Cowboy!

Thought you all might be interested in this video of how to make clay pipes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSH6_nVB9Io

 

[StoneCarver]

Two of these pipes I made; those are on the right. The two I didn't make are on the left. I used the ones I didn't make as reference for bowl size and shape for the ones I made. There's a story behind all of them. All of them are Native American. The top two are made from catlinite and are what we'd call plains style as these L and T shaped catlinite pipes are typical amongst native people of the plains. When I carved the catlinite pipe, you can see that I included a heart shaped design which forms a heart shaped hole going through the pipe. A very unique design; no one can say I copied them. The bottom two are made from soapstone and are typical of what you'd find amongst eastern woodlanders. The bowls of the soapstone pipes are wide and shallow in comparison to the catlinite pipes. This soapstone pipe is the first one I ever carved. On the bottom of both pipes I carved, I included my initials and the year I carved them. The soapstone pipe was carved in 2009.

All three of the wooden stems were carved by myself. The bottom two stems go to the soapstone pipes. The decorated stem is beaded with 13o charlotte cut beads using 3drop peyote stitch and bordered by strips of otter fur. You could say this decoration style is familiar amongst southern plains people; iow not an eastern woodlander style. The upper stem goes to the catlinite pipe I carved. The mouthpiece for the catlinite stem is a small piece of catlinite left over from carving the catlinite pipe. Its not a feature you'd typically see but I thought it was a good way to not waste this precious stone.

The catlinite pipes are really for smoking with a group of people. The soapstone pipes are personal use pipes mostly. The way to smoke with these eastern woodlander pipes is different from what you'd be used to. I've found that, with smoking tobacco in them, its best to only put in enough tobacco for one puff. For some reason, I really feel the nicotine in the tobacco from smoking these pipes, even the catlinite pipes. You don't smoke these pipes like you would a briar. The shape of the bowl just doesn't lend themselves to that way of smoking. The catlinite pipes can be smoked with only enough tobacco for a single puff but doing so is kinda silly as the bowl is so deep and narrow that cleaning it is a bit difficult. The eastern woodlander style is easier to maintain.

I polished the pipes up to a high gloss using a kit for polishing out scratches in aircraft windows. Iirc, I think I have about 16hrs of polishing in the soapstone pipe alone. I refuse to make finished pipes a business. My elbow couldn't handle it.

 

[jackpine]

Two of these pipes I made; those are on the right. The two I didn't make are on the left. I used the ones I didn't make as reference for bowl size and shape for the ones I made. There's a story behind all of them. All of them are Native American. The top two are made from catlinite and are what we'd call plains style as these L and T shaped catlinite pipes are typical amongst native people of the plains. When I carved the catlinite pipe, you can see that I included a heart shaped design which forms a heart shaped hole going through the pipe. A very unique design; no one can say I copied them. The bottom two are made from soapstone and are typical of what you'd find amongst eastern woodlanders. The bowls of the soapstone pipes are wide and shallow in comparison to the catlinite pipes. This soapstone pipe is the first one I ever carved. On the bottom of both pipes I carved, I included my initials and the year I carved them. The soapstone pipe was carved in 2009.

All three of the wooden stems were carved by myself. The bottom two stems go to the soapstone pipes. The decorated stem is beaded with 13o charlotte cut beads using 3drop peyote stitch and bordered by strips of otter fur. You could say this decoration style is familiar amongst southern plains people; iow not an eastern woodlander style. The upper stem goes to the catlinite pipe I carved. The mouthpiece for the catlinite stem is a small piece of catlinite left over from carving the catlinite pipe. Its not a feature you'd typically see but I thought it was a good way to not waste this precious stone.

The catlinite pipes are really for smoking with a group of people. The soapstone pipes are personal use pipes mostly. The way to smoke with these eastern woodlander pipes is different from what you'd be used to. I've found that, with smoking tobacco in them, its best to only put in enough tobacco for one puff. For some reason, I really feel the nicotine in the tobacco from smoking these pipes, even the catlinite pipes. You don't smoke these pipes like you would a briar. The shape of the bowl just doesn't lend themselves to that way of smoking. The catlinite pipes can be smoked with only enough tobacco for a single puff but doing so is kinda silly as the bowl is so deep and narrow that cleaning it is a bit difficult. The eastern woodlander style is easier to maintain.

I polished the pipes up to a high gloss using a kit for polishing out scratches in aircraft windows. Iirc, I think I have about 16hrs of polishing in the soapstone pipe alone. I refuse to make finished pipes a business. My elbow couldn't handle it.

Fantastic craftsmanship!!!! they look great

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Don't suppose you know the Latin of the maple you used?! I've just had a bunch of field maple felled, the Latin is Acer campestre. I've got some pretty hefty chunks, and just wondering if it worth giving a pipe or two a go!

ACER SACCHARUM from Bell Forest Products

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

The hardest maple is A. nigrum, considered by some botanist a subspecies of sugar maple (A. saccharum sbsp. nigrum) and by others as A. nigrum, a definite species.

pier

Here is an information page on that species. The Wood Database - Black Sugar Maple
It has a lower specific gravity and Janka hardness than Hard Maple. However, Hard Maple has lower numbers than Briar but is harder to work and more resistant to erosion from smoking. Only way to know if Black Sugar Maple is a viable pipe material is to make one and try it. If I had some I would.