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Yes it can. Be careful, though. Acrylic will melt when it overheats, but bakelite burns and becomes fragile. The main problem you will have is in bending. I've heard that it snaps easily, though I've never done it. Make sure you heat it sufficiently and do not force the bend. Good luck. Like acrylic...

The canned spray shellac is too thick a cut for use on smooth finishes, in my opinion. By the time you've evened the coat with a buffing wheel you've either removed everything, or gone so far as to wear the soft grain, relieving the growth rings. You're better off using your own mix for them. The ca...

Rad, I always knew you used shitty briar, but you've just confirmed it.

rough shaping is easily done with an 8", 36gr grinding disk mounted on a motor (Kurt's arbors should work) with firm backing plate. You can get the backing plates at Harbor freight, Lowes, Home Depot or other hardware stores for $5-15. Disks usually run a few bucks each and last for 25 pipes or...

Baldor probably makes the best, but they're pricey. Any sealed motor with 1/4-1/3 hp should be fine. You'll need to wire up a switch and plug yourself.

Ben, Brad does not use that tool. It's a great idea, but pretty impractical. Best idea is to either hold the pipe in your hand and stamp with good lighting (what I do) or to form a piece of wood, cover it with thick leather, and use that to support the pipe as you stamp it (as many others do.) Jeff

No one.

They're all likely custom jobs from custom
plans. Jorn Larsen designed and built one or more, but outside of France or Italy, I'm not sure you'll have much luck with help. Try contacting some
of the older American factories to see what they have sitting around as scrap.

Jeff

Well done Ryan! That's a great first year.

I will finish up the year with around 105 completed pipes...I hope. We'll see how productive I can be this week.

Jeff

Yazid's briar is very good. You will deal with inconsistent quality from him though. He's one of the only cutters I've worked with who provides briar marked by visible flaws on the blocks. It's pretty good stuff to blast, makes for fine smooths, and is well cured. Mimmo, is of course, another source...

Hamburg ebonite makes high quality blanks. I don't have their contact info, but someone here might. Also, George from precision pipe repair uses blanks that are essentially rod stock with a shaped button. Apparently he's had good success. you might try contacting him. Though, for my money, if you ar...

Mike, I value the desire to experiment and contribute to the craft original ideas. Novel bowl coatings may be the right way for you to go, but I doubt it. The dairy based coating is widely used and is utterly flavorless when smoked. A minute portion of the collecting community claims to be able to t...

Seems very labor intensive. Why not just wipe activated charcoal powder on the bowl interior? Better yet, wet the bowl, wipe the charcoal powder on it. It accomplishes the same thing, takes less time.

Have fun.

Jeff

Neil makes excellent bags. There's a reason his bags are filled with many of the finest pipes in the States and abroad. I second the vote for smokinholsters.com

jeff

I have a Lars, have smoked it and a number of others made by him. Like Todd said, they smoke like I expect them to...just like pipes by Jess, Nordh, Bang.

If you taper the whole shank it will look strange, no matter how gradual. most of the shank should be straight. A .5mm taper over the 3/4" closest to the bowl will be all you need. That will prevent the effect Kurt described without creating the opposite problem of too much taper. It should loo...

I'll be there Friday through Sunday.

Jeff

Well done, Kurt. That's awesome!

I'm going to make an elaborate shell shape, but turn it on its side. Then I'll stain it brown and use that especially stinky Hamburger ebonite to add to the ambience. When tobacco is smoldering it will look like and smell like a steaming pile of poo. ...but at least it will be well made.

Gerrit Jan wrote:Hi Jeff, who do you mean??

@ Frank: if this was a "brilliant" idea it's been stolen from Poul Winslow... he made his Diamant Pipe first...

It's not Poul.

I know another maker who sells very rough, roughed out pipes as finished.