pipemakersforum.com

I was given a beautiful piece of maple from a friend who wants a pipe. In looking over the forums, I'm just not sure which woods to stay away from. I have read differents things about maple.

Can anybody shed some light?

:dunno:




Now, that was really helpful!!

Hey Craig,

Here is a toxicity list that I had book marked. Hopefully it will be of some help.

http://old.mendelu.cz/~horacek/toxic.htm

achduliebe,

That is an interesting list. Makes one think that the toxicity issue doesn't apply to pipes considering that Olive and Rosewood are both "popular" alternative materials after briar and meerschaum. They have rating of 3 and 4(out of 5?) respectively on potency.

Brendhain,

Tell you the truth, I have never really studied that link. I just had it book marked from a previous discussion on the subject. Since I have only used briar, I have not really had a need to look at it.

achduliebe wrote:Brendhain,

Tell you the truth, I have never really studied that link. I just had it book marked from a previous discussion on the subject. Since I have only used briar, I have not really had a need to look at it.

That's the same data I always get when looking into toxicity stuff... problem is that it's not for pipes and has nothing to do with the breakdown of the wood through heat and flame. It was developed a long time ago for wood turners. It's a guide for people working with the wood and having the potential of breathing a great deal of it in and/or rubbing it in the skin/eyes.

There's only one thing we can do:

We have to start making pipes out of wierd materials and giving them to our friends and family and see how their health reacts. After this we'll report our findings to one another and develop a list of safe materials for pipe makers!

8O

All this reminds me of my father and me standing right next to his BBQ on a summer evening discussing pros and cons of putting some aluminium pans between the charcoal and the meat. Just to prevent the fat from the meat dropping into the coal, since the burning fat would cause a variety of cancerogene materials.
Then we looked at each other – we were both smoking a cigarette during that discussion – and we rather quickly agreed on the burning fat beeing the less important matter when it comes to a BBQ we do. Especiallly as meat done that way simply doesn't taste like BBQed any more…
I would perfectly agree on not using any substances during pipe production that add up any harmful effect on the smoker.
I would also agree on considering the toxic values of the wood when we think about the one who has to work with them every day during the manufacturing – the pipemaker. This is – as said before – probably the primary purpose of the sheet mentioned above. I think it goes more into the matters of allergic reactions.
But beeing far from pulling any »Is pipe smoking a healthy thing to do?« discusssion from the shelf (please don't hook up on that…), I think when it comes to smoking a pipe, the effects of the wood should be discussed concerning practicability, not adding any flavour, aesthetics, and maybe price. I believe all woods we would make a chair or a bed or any kind of furniture in our rooms of, should be fine for the health as far as making pipe smoking not more hazardous as it is. Though most of them will not necessarily be good pipe making material.