Shank extension technique

[stummel bum]

I've been looking around for some good instruction on how to do decorative shank extensions and stem inserts without a lathe, but have been coming up short.

Mainly I'm looking for what steps to do first. Also want to know if the process is pretty much the same for shanks and stems, or if you have to go about it differently.

From the way I understand it, I would have to face my shank/stem material, face one side of the decorative material and join the faced sides with epoxy, therefore creating one unfaced piece of material. Then I can just face it, drill mortises, shape and what not. Will this work? Also, I'm using delrin.

Other methods I've seen involve drilling mortises in the extension material before joining it, but I don't see how I could ensure a gapless fit without a lathe using this method.

Any ideas?

[Sasquatch]

Rob, I think there's a few techniques floating around that you could use. Assuming (and it might not be a correct assumption) that you are going to wind up joining two flat faces, you want something running through them to strengthen it up. With a drill press, you could drill through both and insert a steel sleeve, for example.

Another idea that I haven't seen tried in pipes but that works for cabinetry is "splines" - where you cut a small channel and insert a piece of wood across a joint. Done very carefully, this could really add a neat decorative flare to a piece and add some strength too.

[stummel bum]

Different question but related. Is there any way to keep wood from an extension from getting dirty from ebonite dust while sanding? I recently finished a pipe and wanted to leave the wood extension the natural color, but it got kind of dingy from the black dust. Is it just the wood I was using? It's madrone burl.

[Sasquatch]

If you seal/stabilize the wood this will happen less. Time to get some ping pong balls and acetone and brew up some stabilizer.

[stummel bum]

Cool thanks.