Kooky

[Kooky]

Hello all,

Real name: Brandon G.

Age: 28

Location: South Florida

Years a pipe smoker: 3 months as of Apr 27

How you got into pipe making: Every hobby I undertake, I tend to go molecular on it, as in do as much as possible as I can to be "self sufficient" in it and go down to its basics. Started drinking craft beer, started making craft beer. Started smoking a pipe, started growing tobacco and now it's time to make pipes. Started eating organic whole food, have a permaculture garden growing... You get the idea, I just can't help it, it's my personality. I'm a homesteader stuck in the suburbs.

Other interesting facts: Began learning how to woodwork with only hand tools, Japanese style joinery. With wood prices skyrocketing I decided to buy a Vermont Freehand briar kit after recently picking up the pipe. I don't own many pipe making tools but I do have rasps, files, and any number of chisels and hand saws and useful things. The Japanese rarely use sandpaper, because the planes are so sharp it creates a naturally smooth surface. But, obviously I can't do that with a pipe.

Lastly, I am an utter noob... But I have free time right now. I am desperately seeking a source of income doing something I enjoy and I am taking this as an opportunity. I love tobacco, I love pipes, I absolutely adore the smokey brown aesthetic of jazz, whisky and tobacco. While the forums were being updated due to a bug where I couldn't post, I read everything I could. Please do not take my enthusiasm as "that new kid on the block". I am here to learn, I have no opinions on pipe making, I have no preferences, no ideas, no knowledge, no innovation, nothing. I am here to learn and craft, repeat. Anyway, like I said, I'm very traditional, so much so I do my best to avoid electricity while woodworking. As far as I can tell I will need a metal lathe down the road, which is no problem. I try to only buy US made goods when possible. I will be here for the long run.

Cheers if you read all this, cheers if you didn't.

[DocAitch]

Welcome to the Forum.
The pipe making information available here is encyclopedic.
Please learn to use the search function- a lot of questions have been asked and answered multiple times on this forum.
Don’t hesitate to post your work in the Gallery, but wear your big boy pants when you do.
Also, I want to point out that as “a source of extra income”, pipe making is not a great choice.
Very few pipe makers make any significant money at this venture, and only a handful make a living at it.
Making pipes is a rewarding pastime, but for most us, its a (barely) self paying hobby.
Anyway, welcome.
DocAitch

[Kooky]

Welcome to the Forum.
The pipe making information available here is encyclopedic.
Please learn to use the search function- a lot of questions have been asked and answered multiple times on this forum.
Don’t hesitate to post your work in the Gallery, but wear your big boy pants when you do.
Also, I want to point out that as “a source of extra income”, pipe making is not a great choice.
Very few pipe makers make any significant money at this venture, and only a handful make a living at it.
Making pipes is a rewarding pastime, but for most us, its a (barely) self paying hobby.
Anyway, welcome.
DocAitch

I understand. I would not start this endeavor only for the expectation of money, as it is pretty much art you can smoke from. I don't think anyone would. But I have a lot of free time right now and already am a bit of a woodworker, albeit without machines. Wood prices are so absurd it's going to be harder and harder to sell things, $10 projects are now costing over $60 to make. A $7 set of trellises probably cost me $40 recently for 1x2 garbage wood. A block of briar is at a reasonable price.

All I'm saying as a woodworker, is it would be a nice way to make income relative to how much time I am willing to spend on it the next few years, and luckily can spend on it. This style of woodworking, while still extremely precise, is vision heavy and artistic, something that I will have to sit with for a while.

I have my first pre-drilled briar. I am waiting on some carving tools before I even begin it. I know I can do it with files but I'm not going to. Is there no desire for pipes with "carve" marks? The Japanese love the carve marks in wood provided by traditional "chouna", known as adze in the west. Generally used for hewing timber, it is now used for creating aesthetic patterns.

[DocAitch]

If you peruse the many pipes presented on line, there are certainly those with “carve marks” around.
Rustication is a common finish on artisan pipes, and you could certainly accomplish a “rusticated” finish with carving tools.
However, rustication is generally reserved for briar that has flaws or uninspiring figure.
Briar is such a beautifully figured material that a smooth finish or a sandblasted finish are the common accepted standards.
The best briars combine a refined presentation of the briar’s figure with an understanding of the thermodynamic requirements of a tobacco smoking device coupled with the practical consideration of weight and moment. Most experienced pipe smokers are going to appreciate a 5 1/2” -6” crisply shaped, well proportioned 35-50 gram billiard or Dublin with good grain presentation and a well engineered airway with fine hand cut stem than they are a 150 gram sculpture that will rarely be smoked.
I personally think that such sculpting should be applied to other materials that little or no intrinsic figure - meerschaum, olive, maybe pipestone (catlanite) or black slate.
I am also a woodcarver- I have done several totem poles and other pieces of NorthWest Coast style art, but I think that you are going to find that the utility of traditional wood carving chisels and knives is going to be quite limited when shaping briar.
Briar is best shaped by turning, sawing or grinding (actually a combination of 2-3 of these methods).
There is a good discussion of the tools used for artisan pipemaking in this forum.
DocAitch