Go ahead, kick my ass...

[Albert.A]

...because I made something that is not a classic design, but I promise, the next one will probably be a brandy because my uncle want me to make him one.
And I'm also in the process of making an account on some sort of blog-site or something so I don't have to make more than one post to get all the pictures in.

So, to the pipe. I made this pipe for a friend who's going to give it to his brother as a birthday gift. He said he wanted something "special", gotta love the specificity! Anyway, I had this block with amazing birdseyes, so I thought I'd try to make a shape which would really accentuate that grain. This is the result, my initiall thought was to make an egg-ish shape with elements borrowed from the blowfish (and then I was going to be really funny and call it the caviar-shape) but I feel the egginess got lost during the process a little bit.

The "bamboo" shank extension is cocobolo and I thought alot about what stain would really show of the grain, and look good with the cocobolo, and I'm not sure if I made the most of it in skipping the top stain of the contrast, suggestions are welcome!

So, I'd love it if you guys (and gall as far as I know) would tell me what you think of it, and point out misstakes I've made (I'm aware of some of them, but leave them for you to see for yourselves)

Honnest critique is welcome!

/Albert

[Albert.A]

more pics!

[Albert.A]

and some more.

[sandahlpipe]

Well the bamboo and stem look nice as far as I can tell. The bowl looks a little awkward like a trapezoid with rounded corners. It's close enough that I would classify it as a blowfish. I think it would look better if you had made the front of the bowl less sharp and the belly a little larger. The profile of a blowfish is generally more like a ball.

A brandy is a great idea. Hope to see what you make soon!


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[LatakiaLover]

That is the weirdest billiard I've ever seen.

[Thomas Tkach]

That's not really bamboo, is it?

[Ocyd]

Isn't Cocobolo wildly toxic though? That liner goes all the way through or there's something else in there?

[sandahlpipe]

Isn't Cocobolo wildly toxic though? That liner goes all the way through or there's something else in there?

I missed this detail. If it's cocobolo you're really best off to line it with something protective. Chances are, it would be ok, but don't take chances with people's health.


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[LatakiaLover]

Floral-stinky, iron-heavy, glue-resistant, irritating to lungs and eyes... Sounds like the perfect pipe wood to me!

Cocobolo is oily in look and feel. This oil lends a strong, unmistakable floral odor even to well seasoned wood and occasionally stains the hands with prolonged exposure. Standing up well to repeated handling and exposure to water, a common use is in gun grips and knife handles. It is very hard, fine textured and dense, but is easily machined, although due to the abundance of natural oils, the wood tends to clog abrasives and fine-toothed saw blades, like other very hard, very dense tropical woods. Due to its density and hardness, even a large block of the cut wood will produce a clear musical tone if struck. Cocobolo can be polished to a lustrous, glassy finish. The high natural oil content of the wood makes it difficult to achieve a strong glue joint, and can inhibit the curing of some varnishes, particularly oil based finishes.

Care must be used when cutting cocobolo, as the wood's oils can induce allergic reactions if inhaled or exposed to unprotected skin and eyes. A dust collection system, coupled with the use of personal protective equipment such as respirators, is highly recommended when machining this wood.

[Ocyd]

I just read the oil also has the chance of seeping into woods next to it so the briar is at risk also. You may have to dismantle and incinerate the parts for safty sake. unless by "special" the subtext of "he sleeps with the fishes" was completely lost due to the text format of message boards. In which case: officers I did all I could to stop this from happening.

[Albert.A]

Haha, well, I forgot to mention that the cocobolo is lined with delrin all the way through, it seems like a bad idea to kill of the few customers I have When I glued it I used the advice given on gluing oily and hard tropical woods from wood-database.com so it should hold up fine. And the cocobolo is very old stock (stored for decades according to the seller), and I don't know if that makes a difference, but I didn't percieve it to be as oily as I've seen pictures of (When I sprayed it with water it got wet, it didn't form waterbeads like it did on the pictures I saw).
Oh, and I also roughed up the delrin quite alot on the gluing surfaces, just to make sure it'll hold.

[LatakiaLover]

When I glued it I used the advice given on gluing oily and hard tropical woods from wood-database.com so it should hold up fine.

It's a bit premature to make such an assumption, I think. The heat and moisture cycling caused by smoking plays havoc with traditional pipe making materials at the best of times (repair guy, here), and anything that makes adhesion more difficult to start with would seem to be asking for trouble. Pipes are supposed to last (effectively) forever.

The unnecessary weight is also a bad idea, since balance and low overall weight are desirable qualities in a pipe.

Finally, if cocobolo gives off a strong scent at room temperature, heating would only magnify it. That's how "scent physics" works.

In short, incorporating cocobolo would seem to be an ingenious solution to a nonexistent problem at best, and at worst it would make a customer unhappy with a pipe in the long run, be it from poor balance/hand feel in hand, smelling weird, or simply falling apart.

[kamkiel]

Has anybody who has used cocobolo as a shank extension before experienced any problems? or customers had complaints about it? I know nothing about it except what has just been mentioned above and that it is pretty, but I have seen it used on pipes before.

I think that it is cool that you turned cocobolo to look like bamboo, but why didn't you just use bamboo? Just curious.

[Albert.A]

When I glued it I used the advice given on gluing oily and hard tropical woods from wood-database.com so it should hold up fine.

It's a bit premature to make such an assumption, I think. The heat and moisture cycling caused by smoking plays havoc with traditional pipe making materials at the best of times (repair guy, here), and anything that makes adhesion more difficult to start with would seem to be asking for trouble. Pipes are supposed to last (effectively) forever.

The unnecessary weight is also a bad idea, since balance and low overall weight are desirable qualities in a pipe.

Finally, if cocobolo gives off a strong scent at room temperature, heating would only magnify it. That's how "scent physics" works.

In short, incorporating cocobolo would seem to be an ingenious solution to a nonexistent problem at best, and at worst it would make a customer unhappy with a pipe in the long run, be it from poor balance/hand feel in hand, smelling weird, or simply falling apart.

George, you are right ofcourse, what I should have written is probably "so HOPEFULLY it'll hold up". But I can't be sure ofcourse, and if someone like you feel sceptical about it, I think that is reason enough to think that the scepticism is probably well founded, and I do mean that, I'm not being sarcastic, I have read alot on this forum and you seem to be one of the most knowledgeble around (no offence to the rest of you guys).

I did however make a drawing in paint (stunningly beautiful) showing how I attached the cocobolo to the briar just to make sure we are on the same page about the gluing and attachement, because I can't help but to think the smoke will have a very hard time reaching all the glue joints (every surface was glued). Oh, and the beautiful paint handwriting is not easy, but with practice it can be done!

[Albert.A]

Has anybody who has used cocobolo as a shank extension before experienced any problems? or customers had complaints about it? I know nothing about it except what has just been mentioned above and that it is pretty, but I have seen it used on pipes before.

I think that it is cool that you turned cocobolo to look like bamboo, but why didn't you just use bamboo? Just curious.

I have also seen it on pipes several times, and that's why I didn't really think about the possible problems it might give rise to. And to be completely honnest, the only reason I didn't just use bamboo is because I think cocobolo is so damn beautiful, pleasant to work, and it has a fantastic scent (kind of exactly like cinamon)!

And that is another reason I didn't think about the possible problems untill now, because I didn't have any kind of allergical reaction during the making of this pipe. If I had, I'd probably think that using it in a smoking instrument would be unwise.

[sandahlpipe]

Typically, one would use a thin stainless steel tube instead of delrin for such an application. It doesn't seem that delrin all the way through would cause an issue, but George should know. He's fixed more pipes than I will probably ever touch in my lifetime.

[Albert.A]

Well, I could say I have a reason for using delrin, but I'd be lying. The only reason I used delrin was because I havn't been able to source such stainless steel tube that is easily available for me (i.e. not ordered from the US) and I fugured the delrin would be the next best thing that I had on hand.

[Ocyd]

My cousin had one that had cocobolo in the extension but it was a stone pipe with a steel tube that ran the length for non tobacco use, and people do use it for various things. It's probably be fine. But is probably really good enough? especially for a gift. A pipe can can live a considerably long time and pass though any number of peoples hands over those years. It's a gamble. I wouldn't want to be the person with the story of why it was a bad idea. Besides it can be a downer when you find out that your favorite pipe is made of wood known to be toxic. Maybe it's a due diligence, care in crafting type thing? But i was told once about something else but still relevant "You take these precautions so you can continue to do what you enjoy all that much longer".

[Albert.A]

That is very true and worth considering, "is probably good enough?" When one puts it like that it becomes quite clear what the answer is, and just to be clear with you guys, after reading your comments so far I will probably not make an extension as substancial as this one out of cocobolo any time soon, although I probably will make things like shank end-caps and similar things that doesn't support the whole pipe, or comes in contact with the smoke.

[LatakiaLover]

AA --

Provided it extends past the glued joint far enough, the Delrin tube/sleeve should do a good job of shielding it from the seeping tars and the acidic goop that loves to attack close-to-bowl shank joints, so that's good. SS tubing would shield the joint equally well, though, while adding some rigidity and avoiding Delrin's slipperiness/gluing problems, so would have been a better choice. It would also never melt, taking worries about how close to the chamber is too close? off the table completely.

A good source for SS is McMaster Carr:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#

Normally, a good way to avoid gluing problems altogether when attaching shank extensions it to pin them, but cocobolo should be sleeved as a categorical thing, I imagine.

The gratuitous smell and unnecessary weight is still bothersome, but if the look of the wood offsets those things in your mind, no one can say it's wrong, exactly. Kind of like driving a Kenworth W-900 around town without a trailer, using it as a car... it works, but the trade-offs would keep most people from considering it.