filling a leak

[T3pipes]

somewhere in the red box is a hole. It was not visible during shaping, nor when rusticating. When I stained it, however, the leak is apparent, and there may be a few more small ones judging from the bowl.

will a heavy shellacking fill these small holes, or should I take some more drastic measures.

This is going to be a personal pipe.

[mathias65]

i'm no expert by any means. i have had a couple seep though like this too. but i think once you shellac it, and wax it, it should be ok. and even if there is an air leak it should be tiny and still smokable. once you build up a bit of a cake i think they'd go away too.

'course i could be wrong too.

[ToddJohnson]

The stain can sometimes bleed through without there actually being a "hole" through the wall. Put a synthetic wine cork in the tobacco chamber and just "pressure test" it by sucking on the stem. If you can draw any air through at all, you may have a flaw running into the bowl. Either way, you can just put a couple drops of CA on the outside if you want to "seal" it.

TJ

[caskwith]

The main reason i started coating bowls was due to the problem Todd mentioned. Especially it seemed on rusicated pipes I was getting stain bleed into the bowl. Even on very very thick walls it would still come through. I took this to mean it was very good dry porous briar, but it was unsightly so i now coat bowls. (Also helps cos i often get it inside when staining the rim lol)

[Charl]

Call a plumber?
Sorry, was the first thing I thought of when reading the header.

[T3pipes]

thanks folks, will be useful in future.

good to know about the bleed through, have not experienced this before. think this was an actual hole or crack though, the stain was flowing through it. after the shellacking, i took a rubber plug and pressure tested it and no leaks, smokes good.

[Nick]

I always though that the stain bleeding through was pretty cool. I'd like to cut open a pipe like this to look at the inside of the briar one day.

[T3pipes]

i think a little bleed through is cool too, but when more ends up inside than outside...

if i remember correctly, the areas that bleed through on this pipe was bird's eye grained. Seems bird's eye bleeds through more often than straight grain