5/16" gap from tenon to shank mortise, pit in airway

[Dixie_piper]

Mind you, this is a factory pipe I'm playing with.
What, if anything could I do about having 5/16" from the bottom of the tenon to the shoulder on the mortise...WTF!?!?
Anywho... The draught hole still has rough edges, is off center, not a big issue just a piss off point.
Also, where they drilled the mortise, it's obvious a spade bit was used resulting in a fairly deep gouge going well below the draught hole, would this be an isssue?
It is bent stem, but that gap seems extreme to me, but I very well could be wrong.
And I'm still aspiring to one day have "not so out there" questions. Just seems that this is a weird issue... but so goes the way of the pipe? (or so meh thinks)
Thanks!

[KurtHuhn]

What, if anything could I do about having 5/16" from the bottom of the tenon to the shoulder on the mortise...WTF!?!?

When I'm asked to rectify that problem when repairing treasured factory pipes, I typically use a short bit of delrin that's been sized to fit snug in the mortis. Just be sure to drill a hole for the airway before inserting it.

Anywho... The draught hole still has rough edges, is off center, not a big issue just a piss off point.
Also, where they drilled the mortise, it's obvious a spade bit was used resulting in a fairly deep gouge going well below the draught hole, would this be an isssue?
It is bent stem, but that gap seems extreme to me, but I very well could be wrong.
And I'm still aspiring to one day have "not so out there" questions. Just seems that this is a weird issue... but so goes the way of the pipe? (or so meh thinks)

The airway can be brought to center by "ramping" the hole at the bottom of the mortis. It's best done with a dremel, but if you have some small riffler files, you could use them. Basically you smooth the airway entrance and make it oval so that it meets with the airway in the stem. That's the quickest and easiest way to do that.

I don' think the gouges will be a problem. Especially if you fill the gap with bit of delrin or ebonite.

[Sasquatch]

I wouldn't worry about either problem to be honest. While I think the very best pipes generally are built on a tight engineering spec, I've got many pipes that fail all kinds of technical tests and yet which perform very, very well.

Cut a countersink shape into the end of the tenon and call'er done.

[Dixie_piper]

Thanks guys! Great advice there!
In trying to keep my "sunny disposition" I figure it's a good thing I'm seeing all these flaws on a factory pipe so I can avoid (or at least try to avoid) making the same mistakes myself
I rifled through the stummels forum on here for hours last night, wealth of info on here.
Thanks again guys!