Ebonite Churchwardens

[Spit'n'Whittle]

Is it possible to heat an ebonite stem in an oven for shaping? If so, how hot and how long? I have a churchwarden stem that is straight as an arrow that needs a little character. Thanks in advance.

[JMG]

You would heat it like any other stem. I find a heat gun to be the most effective (especially for longer/larger stems. Just be sure to keep it moving over the heat source so that it heats evenly.

[sandahlpipe]

While it is possible to heat a stem in the oven, you probably don't want to heat the tenon much, so I agree with JMG. Just use a heat gun and warm it up evenly while keeping the stem or the heat source moving.

[Spit'n'Whittle]

Hmmm...I didn't think about the tenon. I was thinking an oven heats evenly and WI deed if anybody had tried it. 400 degrees for 10 minutes for an aldente stem. Ha.

[scotties22]

I have done it before. But, you have to be extremely careful not to touch the tenon at all. 350 degrees for about 10 minutes worked for me.....oh, I buried it in salt too....ya know, to help heat it evenly.

[sparkyspipes]

you could always do it like you would do extra thick stems, put it in almost boiling water till its hot enough you don't want to touch it,
then use the heat gun to finish it off. It will help get the area heated up.

[caskwith]

Heat gun with a wide diffuser head is best for long stems I find.

[Spit'n'Whittle]

Gentlemen, for the purposes of posterity, I tried the oven method (350 for 10). Fantastic results. With a pair of cotton garden gloves and the spray of cold water from the sink...it is ideal

[LatakiaLover]

Gentlemen, for the purposes of posterity, I tried the oven method (350 for 10). Fantastic results. With a pair of cotton garden gloves and the spray of cold water from the sink...it is ideal

Not recommended, actually.

When the entire stem is soft, it is quite easy to put a twist in it when bending, as well as nudge the tenon somehow. If it gets out of dead-square by even a thousandth, you'll have a gap. A tedious-to-fix gap.

Doing it in stages with a hot air gun while attached to the stummel affords much greater control and safety.

[Spit'n'Whittle]

A thousandth? You do realize that you are smoking tobacco plant in a carved wooden chamber through a shaped stem through a consistent draw hole, right?

[LatakiaLover]

A thousandth?

Yup. The human eye's resolution---how close two objects can be before they blur into one---is about 0.01 degrees apart: a 0.026mm gap when 15cm from your face... and .026mm = .00102"

When the "object" being viewed is a light source against a dark background, and enough light is emitted to trigger the eye's detector cells, its ability to resolve is MUCH greater. .0024 seconds of arc, if you're into that sort of thing. Which is about 1.75 nanometers (10 times the width of an atom of gold) at the same 15cm distance.

Since "light tight" is the expectation for stem/shank fit with artisan pipes---it's one of the channel markers of technical expertise---there you go.

You do realize that you are smoking tobacco plant in a carved wooden chamber through a shaped stem through a consistent draw hole, right?

Yup. (see my sig line for an implied explanation)

[Spit'n'Whittle]

http://youtu.be/wnv0DAR_gWA

Just sayin'

[LatakiaLover]

http://youtu.be/wnv0DAR_gWA

Just sayin'

Not sure of the connection, but it was certainly creepy.

[Spit'n'Whittle]

It was a little creepy! Simply saying that sometimes, there's more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.

[scotties22]

For what a heat gun costs ($20 on Amazon for a good one) it't not worth the hassle of bending them in the oven. Yes I have done it.....but I don't any more