Best wishes!
This is a little long but heres the background...
I have a woodworking shop at my house, I dabble in this, I dabble in that, I make a lot of pens, etc. I saw a YouTube video of a guy making a pipe on a lathe, I think it was someone on here, not sure.
Anyway, before I found this forum and before I had any real idea of what was involved, I chunked up a coupla pieces of walnut. I made my first pipe on the lathe out of Walnut.
During the sanding on the first pipe (using the pad on a lathe drill chuck) I burned through the bowl.
My second attempt I made out of maple burl and it was ok, real big wide bowl, nice grain, good stain (no alcohol stain yet), nice symmetry, not so smooth finish, a little bumpy. It even smoked well...the good part was I had my draft holes pretty nice to begin with, but….
I bought some el cheapo acrylic stems on eBay thinking they were the same as regular stems…uh uh…little thin plastic looking things…. Results in a big bowl with a little tiny stem…not cool…but it’s all I had at the time…they did take a nice shine though….
Third pipe was walnut again; I have a picture of it on my website below. It was ok and alot better than what I had done before. By this pipe I saw Mastro Grandolfo using a dowel and strips of sanding grits to smooth the pipe before buffing. I did well enough at this to get a fairly consistent finish. But walnut (especially the “came over on the ark” type I had, dried as a bone) is punky wood...it cracks...it moans...it groans....it has ugly pores...lol. I even buffed it a little using a cheap harbor freight buffing kit. Did ok. Looked decent, I have pictures of it on my website link below.
Fourth pipe was a walnut freehand using a spindle sander chucked in the lathe drill chuck, it turned out neat looking, the finish was right, but it still had those damn ugly plastic stems…and punky walnut…
Im a big guy, I want a pipe that looks like a pipe, not a toy.
So...trying to make it quick, I hate typing....I dropped some money on PIMO stuff...excellent service and Ginny is great. I wished the website was more users friendly that’s all...anyway...got 2 straight blocks, 1 bent block, buffs, tenon tool, dye, etc.
I bought some REAL nice ebonite stems on eBay. Nice big ones…
I shape my pipes on the lathe, I chuck it up, drill my holes (face w/forstner, bevel, air hole, mortise) round out the stem first, I flip it, drill my bowl (2/3 w/ forstner, finish with PIMO 7/8 tobacco bit), face the top, round over the sides as far as I can to the stem (I have launched the stummel across the room catching the stem too btw) all is well air hole just meets the bowl near the bottom (not slightly above, not in the middle of the bowl, etc.). After shaping on the lathe and disk, I take it to the dowel and fine sand to 400 using strips of grit. Light stain between each grit to show the lines (thanks Kurt)…etc.etc.
Finish sanding, stain, fire, buff using Tripoli, white diamond, carnuba, and final clean buff.
Shew….
The result is this…a fine smoking pipe that I am proud to call mine. This pipe will smoke all day…I never have to relight…it doesn’t gurgle, it doesn’t wheeze. I don’t taste my own tobacco flavored spit…it feels good in my hand.
I am happy. I am addicted. Thank you everyone for all your input (indirectly) that has got me this far from reading this forum. I look forward to having a go at more pipe making fun…
Sorry for the crappy cell pics but it’s all I had time for…
