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The Fiebing's Leather Dye box has cautions on it about it being harmful if swallowed, so are these small amounts of dried dye on the interior of the bowl dangerous? Thanks all For virtually every modern finish, it is the solvent that is dangerous, and not the dye or pigment itself. The same goes fo...

Real name: Bill Grumbine Age: 56 Location: Kutztown PA Years a pipe smoker: 39, on and off. How you got into pipe making: I have owned and run my own woodworking business, primarily woodturning, for over 20 years now. Being a pipe smoker, I figured they were made of wood, so how hard could it be? I ...

I guess I need to check in here a little more often. :oops: I have been turning professionally for over 20 years now, and some people think I am pretty good at it. I am, on a good day anyway. I thought I would be able to start right in making some nice pipes, and while my woodturning skills helped j...

Do you figure using a nailgun instead of a hammer to frame a house is cheating also? :D Yep, not happy unless you hand forge the nails and bang them in with a rock! :lol: I suppose my point was that i know if i had started turning with carbide scrapers i would never have bothered to learn how to us...

I have been changing over to LED lights in the shop. The one thing that sort of bothers me is I have tried two different brands of 100w bulbs over the lathe, and they behave like fluorescent bulbs. They give good light, but the lathe can have the appearance of running slower, faster, or even backwar...

I have yet to try a bamboo shank, but as for the turning part, I would use a skew. But that's just me. I have some bamboo, so maybe I need to give it a try. In any case, good luck with it.

Woodturning has as steep a curve as pipe carving. Well, maybe, almost. :P The easy rougher tools will get you started, but they have a way of deadening the learning curve. I think the best tool for shaping a stummel on a wood lathe is a 3/8" bowl gouge. But, there is a lot of learnin' that has ...

Steve Norse is running a deal on briar that is hard to pass up. I can't say if he has any left of the packages he was offering, but if you want to check him out, go to vermontfreehand.com to see what is what.

I like the stummel a lot, though I do agree with Wayne's comments. I would add that it would look less clunky on the stem (short one) if you curved over the ends/sides of the buttons...brought them together rather than having that flat spot on each side (does that make sense?) It does make sense. I...

Thank you Wayne. I will endeavor to put your suggestions into effect on the next stem, and I do see what you mean with the lines on the bowl.

Thank you, gentlemen!

I know it is not always easy to critique a freehand, but I am interested in any feedback that anyone might care to give. Please feel free to critique my photographic skills as well. This is my ninth pipe, and second sale. It has taken me a while to get to nine pipes, but as I mentioned in another po...

Thank you Jason! This is a whole new thing for me.

Benniesam, I am coming in a little late on the discussion here, but I have some experience. I have been in the business of woodworking for 22 years now. For much of that time I was a sole proprietor, but about five or six years ago, switched over to an LLC. The LLC helps to insulate my family and pe...

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I have had time to post, or even read here. Pipe making took a back seat to a bunch of other things that were non negotiable over the last half of last year. Still, the pipe bench called, and having some of the friends I do in our local pipe club, people twi...

Just about anything wet will help the sanding go faster and easier. Some people will even wet sand with water, but I think that is counterproductive. I will usually sand dry until I put the first coat of oil on. Then, if there are problems, I will wet sand with the finish I am going to use. This wor...

I wet sanded from 220 to 600 with mineral oil. Then I dry buffed it on the lathe with an old sock and topped it with a good coat of bees wax. It gave it a really warm glow. The first thing Heath said was that it wasn't shiny enough :lol: That's what you get for using one of Heath's old socks. TOXIC...

Very nice work Scottie! I was not paying close attention until I started reading though, and expected to see a pipe stummel. Still and all, very nice indeed. Very nice. Osage is one of my favorite woods. Makes nice pipes too. It does. Jason gave me a piece when we were out at Premal's in March, and ...

Last year I think it was $7.00 for one day if you were not a member of their club, and $2.00 if you were. I would not swear that, but it would be in line with what mightysmurf wrote. In fact, I was in line with mightysmurf down there at last year's show.

I started out turning the tenons on my wood lathe. I used a wood scroll chuck with the #1 jaws and a very sharp parting tool to turn the tenon. If you put a small dimple in the end where you will be drilling the airway, you can use the live center for more stability. This method worked reasonably we...