Hello Pipemakers Forum! I want to thank you all for the knowledge and inspiration for this hobby. I'm a new pipe smoker, and a brand new pipemaker. I didn't even think you could really make pipes at home when I started smoking pipes until I saw some briar blocks for sale at my local B&M. They explained that you can carve your own pipes, but it's really really hard, because the wood is so tough. So naturally i went home, googled "pipe carving" and stumbled across Pimo's website. I was pretty stoked on the fact that i could order a book, some predrilled blocks and whatnot and go to town on pipes. so i ordered 3 predrilled kits, one straight kit, and one each bent/straight of the second tier kits for practice. tracked the package a few days later and went to Ace hardware and bought myself a little bench vise, coping saw and some sand paper so i could start the day it arrived. reading the book a bit made me confident that i could start this, and i went about it with nothing but the coping saw to start. about three hours of sawing, I took a break and went to bed. decided to google "good files for making briar pipes" and stumbled on this site, and it suggested Iwasaki files. so i bought a half round and flat of fine and medium cut, as well as an 8" round. those arrived a few days later and i attacked the pipe again. two nights worth of labor and i had the thing shaped so i started sanding and stained the thing. i was pretty anxious to get my pipe finished so i could smoke that sucker. needless to say, i have a pretty ugly pipe when i'm done. smokes really nice, but i felt like i could have done better. so i google "making briar pipes at home" and run across a few things here and there and decide to buy a little sander (1" belt sander form harbour frieght" because i couldn't get the sanding discs to mount right on the drill chuck i wanted to mound to my bench grinder (it was really really sketchy). Then i try the bent pipe. i have a good go at it, and actually pay attention to the stem on this one, and try to make it into a more classic like shape, and did a bit better. but it was still ugly! so naturally i stained it red. because big and ugly need to be red
anyway enough of my rambling. essentially i figured, this is pretty hard, but i bet i could get the hang of it if i found out more about it. so the internet eventually led me back to here. i lurked for quite some time, and read up a bit, and i'm fairly confident that my third pipe will be an improvement over the last. so thank you for the information, and i look forward to getting to know you all better!
for you laughing amusement, here are my first two rushed, uneducated pipes!
first pipe
pretty odd. fits my hand well though. the stem is just an abomination where it meets the shank. not to mention the huge flaws in the briar. but it smokes nice, and it reminds me what i did wrong!
second pipe, Clifford, the big ugly pipe:
actually spent a little more time on the stem/shank area on this one, but not enough. it was too rushed. anyway, thank you all for the inspiration and knowledge! hobbyists like myself really do appreciate it, even though we keep bugging you with stupid questions!
- Jeb
and have a blast while doing it