birch wood first pipe

[endacoz]

I tried my first pipe in Cherry wood but after drilling and starting to shape the stummel I came upon some bad cracks. The only other dried wood I have is some branches of birch in my firewood pile. Below are the pictures after 40 minutes of work, drilling and roughing the stummel.

Anyone else finished birch? Tips? I heard it should be boiled? How does it then dry back out?

Please give me thoughts and comments. I think the grain looks very interesting!

[e Markle]

Are you harvesting it yourself? If so you will probably need to cure it somehow, but I don't know much about that process. If you are harvesting it yourself, where do you live? If you're buying it from a wood supply place it should be fine. That being said, we don't use materials like this for the body (stummel) of the pipe; we use briar. This would make excellent inlays, and it pains me to think this is used for a stummel! That's valuable wood.

You could probably get away with using this if you make a bowl liner (or sleeve) made from briar, morta or meerschaum. It would be beautiful, and that liner would help reduce the chance of burnout. Birch itself will burn through - it might take some time, but it will burn through.

[wisemanpipes]

that birch is gorgeous! I have some for inlays but it has less spalting (or whatever) than that piece. like ernie says, it will burnout, however a lot of people make first pipes from fruit trees/beech/birch/walnut and usually finish with oils at a high grit. I also recommend getting your hands on briar. do more research if your seriously interested in pipemaking and you'll come to know so much more about the craft than just a piece of wood with 2 holes. Have fun in the archives and welcome!

-Evan

[Oakbear]

Birch does smoke ok, but as mentioned won't last too long, especially if you smoke it hard.

If that is spalting it's probably not going to be smokable though. The fungus can be toxic, and aside from that will cause soft and dry areas in the wood which could burn out quickly and split the wood.

What sort of birch is it? The pattern almost looks like macassar birch rather than spalting..

[endacoz]

Unsure of the type of Birch. A friend from church had the tree fell on his garage and I have burned most of it. I only have a few branches left. It has been siting outside for almost 2 years in my wood pile.

I live in Minnesota.

Can you send me a picture of the inlays out of birch?

[Alden]

I agree, thats some very nice looking spalt. A shame such a big piece of it was used up on a pipe that probably wont last long. But, who knows. It is probably pretty soft though.
I have some Cherry Birch (Betula Lenta) that spalted in a very similar way. I want some more if you have any pieces with that much character (black lines). I will trade you the same amount of briar if you want to do a trade. Give you some actual briar to work with anyway.

[endacoz]

I have more birch but hard to tell if it is spalted....
I am unable to attach these photos so here is a link to some birch i have. 2pieces definatly have spalting as shown the bigger piece shown is what is left of the piece i made the pipe from. I put a dollar in the pics for size.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1070138347 ... peCrafting

Since I am new to pipe making I would love to get some briar to shape a pipe or two out of!

Willing to trade?

[Charl]

That's beautiful wood, can always use it for accent rings if it doesn't work out.

[Alden]

I have more birch but hard to tell if it is spalted....
I am unable to attach these photos so here is a link to some birch i have. 2pieces definatly have spalting as shown the bigger piece shown is what is left of the piece i made the pipe from. I put a dollar in the pics for size.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1070138347 ... peCrafting

Since I am new to pipe making I would love to get some briar to shape a pipe or two out of!

Willing to trade?

Sure I'd trade you for the big piece. Two blocks of briar if you're interested, just PM me your address and I'll send you mine.

[lancefisher51]

Idk if this will work but I took a scrap bowl of briar that I had an shaped it to fit into a 1inch drill whole in a piece of birch. Pressed it in there with my hand press.. let set over nite. I tight it every time I woke up. Then filed the top down. This is what I got. Idk. Just a experiment.


Lance