Be polite, please, I know its ugly. I have been a pipe smoker for 10+ years and I have always wanted to make my own pipe. I have had the block of wood knocking around for a few months, but was dragging my heels on actually turning it into a pipe. Then one day, my corncob fell apart and I needed a new pipe, so I drilled out my block of wood to fit the stem off my corncob, packed it with tobacco and had a smoke. Then I grabbed my pocket knife and started whittling it down. I didn't have any of the tools that I needed to properly shape it, just a couple knives and some sandpaper. A couple weeks later and it had a decent shape, so I used some old leather dye and linseed oil to make it look a little bit prettier and called it good. I learned a fair amount, such as, curly maple is a beautiful piece of wood, but the grain in it is not conducive to knife carving. I also learned that there is a very good reason you don't often hear about people carving out a pipe with a pocket knife, it takes forever and is a lot of work. I am going to try using files and rasps next, since I live in a 1br apartment and don't really have facilities for power tools. So for right now, I have a very ugly, very functional pipe.