The stummel is maple (3/4" x 1 1/4" tobacco chamber) and is shaped something like Santa's pipe in my daughter's Night Before Xmas book.
The stem is the real experiment. It's a natural viburnum stem that I drilled out with a homemade drill bit made from a piece of heavy steel wire. I pounded one end of the wire flat and filed the end into a point. Viburnum has a soft pith that the drill bit follows, so you can drill right through a 14" piece even if it has a little bend in it.
My first smoke wasn't very good because some of the pith remained in the stem and swelled up, which reduced the draw to nothing. The unfinished wood mouthpiece also sticks to the lips, which isn't very pleasant, but at least there were no funny off flavors.
After reaming the stem again and finishing the mouthpiece with melted beeswax, the second smoke was much better. It is a very dry smoking pipe, which is good. Maybe the tobacco flavors are a little muted compared to a broken-in briar, but that really isnt' a fair comparison because this pipe is nowhere near broken in.
Overall, I think it was a worthwhile experiment and I think I'll make another one. The cost is zero, so I could make a whole pile of them and dedicate each one to a different tobacco.
