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What do you recommend in an extension such as this Sixten, as far as lining the extension with a briar insert? I believe this is horn, but I'm thinking of boxwood. Is it safe to have part of the draught drilling to be boxwood? Or better to add briar?

thanks,
Jeremy

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You could line it with stainless steel or Delrin. I think either would be better than the material of most exotic extension materials as they are either toxic or prone to split with the moisture of smoking.

Thanks Wayne! Sometimes it's so obvious..... stainless it is.

Dealing with the after-effects of badly executed shank extensions is a significant part of my workload.

The problem is that artist-y brains are bored by engineering-y stuff and there's no standardized method (herding cats, that), so not enough thought goes into it. i.e. glue on a chunk of wood and go

Me? I'd do a full mortise and tenon between the extension and shank---not a flat join---AND line the entire shank from the base of the primary mortise to within 3/8-1/2" of the chamber with ss tubing. Regardless of the extension material type.

Except horn. I would never go near real horn for that task because I have no idea how to obtain the (obviously) magic stuff a handful of Euro super carvers have access to. Comes from secret Latvian forests with magic deer, or something. Anything less **WILL** eventually cloud from incremental delamination, and (more eventually) detach from the shank for the same reason.

Looks great until then, though.

PS -- Don't use Superglue, either. Use epoxy:

And for the love of Pete, rough up the stainless steel surface before glueing.

wdteipen wrote:And for the love of Pete, rough up the stainless steel surface before glueing.

[emoji16][emoji16] Roger that. Over.

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