A Calabash Project

[Hawke]

Ive been hanging out on another forum mostly but a lot of my post relate to restoring or building. Im very new to pipe smoking(Jan 2014) and even newer to any restoration work. I couple pictures of previous work at my introduction page.

However to join in here a little, I thought I would post pics of a simple trial effort in making a small Calabash from scratch for fun. I obtained some gourds, and working on the bowl from an estate pipe. It is to be briar not meerschaum. Not sure how I will handle the cork liner or even the stem at this point. Anyway...

[scotties22]

Been watching your progress over on Pipes Magazine. I have made a few calabash from raw gourds...all with briar bowls.

How thick is that gourd?

[Hawke]

A little over 1/16th Scottie. They are banana gourds.
Saw one of yours. Ill never be that good. Its fun to smoke one you made yourself. I love smoking my bamboo churchwarden. Never posted any pics of that one. It has no tube thru the bamboo, just raw shank and will be hard to clean, but talk about dry cool smoker!

[scotties22]

If you have a music supply near you go and get some cork there. If not the sheets they sell at Office Max that are 1/8" (?) thick will work. Make the gasket about 1/4" tall. Be very careful fitting the bowl. Gourds that thin are really easy to crack

[Hawke]

Great! So Scottie, what is the purpose of the cork Sir?

[Hawke]

Ok, I found the cork is to seal things off. Progress. Old bowl sure has been charred up. Ah well Im learning and having a bit of fun. Patching a weak spot where the old stem went thru. The charred wood is super soft.

[Hawke]

A little more work done. I think the black shaft is too long. The old estate bowl I used had pretty good bit of char around the edge so I hid that with a bit of rustication. Still need a cork seal, it leaks a little between gourd and bowl.