I'm going to try my hand at some wood stemmed pipes for fun and was curious about the types of wood used; I was going to use maple or cherry. Is it acceptable to use something like oak as well? I understand that oak has some irritant-issues which is why it's not used for stummels. Just wondering if it's suitable for the stem portion of a pipe since nothing is actually burning in that part...? Thanks

I don't have an answer to this question but I have a related question of my own. With a wood stem how would you keep saliva from soaking and warping the wood right at the mouthpiece?

I've tried jujube wood and African blackwood. Jujube is basically softwood and I had to make the bit quite thick and still be very tender with my jaws. It's not fit for clench. I won't try any soft wood again. African blackwood is super hard wood, kind of close to acrylic. The difference is that it can't be polished like ebonite or acrylic. You can find pictures of Kurt's African blackwood knife in the "other things we make" part.
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No flavor imparted in eith case. African blackwood is quite workable as bit material, provided you avoid the white part. The only weakness is that the lack of smoothness (in comparison with acrylic or ebonite) may make the tenon fit less ideal.

I know on the Vauen wood stems they use a little acrylic bit for the mouthpiece...other than that, if you're going for a totally wood stem I think you just enter into it with the knowledge that it's not going to be a clenching type of pipe. Sit n' sip. Dryly. I'm planning on a delrin tenon and probably an acrylic or ebonite mouthpiece...

I have two pipes made totally out of black ebony from Africa. They smoke great.

Any chance you could post a couple pictures of those Craig? I'd be indebted to ya!

Hi,
I've made two pipes with Walnut stummels/maple stems. They smoke great and I often prefer them over my traditional briar pipes. To me, the maple stems are more comfortable in my teeth and can actually take a lot of abuse.



Hey Nathan, I was curious about the same thing, so with my 2nd maple stemmed pipe, I did a little finishing experiment. With my first pipe (not shown here), I only dry sanded to 600 and I've noticed the stem has some more teeth marks than on my second pipe and soaks up more saliva (it still has held up pretty well, though, and I smoke it fairly regularly).

On my second walnut/maple pipe (here is a pic of the 2nd pipe):



I wet sanded to 2000 grit and made a homemade slurry consisting of a tiny bit of shellac and mostly "fff" or very fine grade pumice and denatured alcohol (I worked that into the wood with each grit from 600 up, sanding with each grit twice, e.g. 600 grit with slurry, wipe off extra slurry, followed by 600 grit alone, repeating the same procedure with 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grits).

The slurry (and sanding to 2000 grit) has made the maple stem much harder than the maple bit on my first pipe and so far, it is holding up pretty well to this chomper. So far, no teeth marks and although the saliva makes the wax finish a little foggy after some use, I've buffed it out again and it shines right up again really nicely and, it is still much more comfortable than a traditional bit.

Here is a close up of the maple stem:


You can see more pics of my 2nd pipe in the gallery under "New Pipe Maker - 2nd pipe"

Oh, and Craig,
I'd love to see those two African Ebony pipes too! They sound really nice.

Not a chomper wood from my experience but apricot wood makes a gorgeous stem for a pipe...