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great thank you so much! I am in Asia, there is lot sof industrial stuff here, but a real lack in fine woodworking stuff. There is also a bit of a language barrier. The few places i have found, factories, dont sell retail and dont have local outlets (all export).

Appreciate the links

bamboo root is very hard and has a very interesting texture when cleaned. different species a have different thicknesses of the stem, and i know the PNW is trying to grow it commercially for building and such (meaning they are growing larger species). small species/young plants have thinner stems, a...

For what it is worth i have made a couple, not finished mind you, out of coffee root (arabica). it works well, but is certainly softer than briar! I have not had any reaction to it personally.

Me, and a few folks i have met, have had minor allergic reactions to paduak while turning/sanding. turns lovely though, we were using it for candle holders. very pretty wood.

Locally, this kind of thing is just not really done here. But would like to start making long pipes and cannot source bits here. by long, meaning 12"+ (and thin enough for a pipe of course). Anyone know of a place online that sells them?

when you dry it, what is your method? smoking it soon (green?) sounds interesting. Its sure a lot easier to carve green, but i hate spending time on carving it only to see it split

I am not too sure how well this would go over with you folks, but i have made a few experimental pipes with wood stems than undo. inside the stem i drill about 3/4" deep bigger hole to fit those bulk ziz zag type cigarette filters into. Now i am no tobacco connaisseur, so i am not too knowledga...

im not sure....i know acetone evaporates without residue, so thats safe once it dries....but i am honestly not sure about what is left in the wax that could be harmful....i have only used in it decoration, nothing meant for smoking/eating etc....

very nice work kurt! nice knives! the second to last is particularly handsome, to my taste anyway. i got 50 $ knife and how to make knives ordered, cant wait to get htem here. thanks for the suggestions on books! now to try and track down a local source of metal...i would hate to think the shipping ...

it is great on other wood items, which is why i thought it would be great on pipes....but to be honest, i am fine with anything tried and true i am mostly wanting non -less- toxic things.

great thanks man. Do you know Hermann von Appen email/website? i googled him ut came up empty handed (i think).

Looking for a good mail order source for wax to finish pipes.

Renassaince wax or...?

hehe, ya carving an entire block with knives would be rather labour intensive!!! i shaoe more or less "traditionally" nad use knives/chissels to do detail stuff. kurt, thanks a lot for the info, if your into i would love to see some of your work! i have looked around as astart for some ste...

very beautiful pipe! the before and after is a neat thing to see on pipe projects

if i may, what was teh new way of staining/finishing you tried? its a real attractive finish no doubt.

anyone here do it? i tried it a few years ago with ok results, but failed on teh metal en of things....i ended up burning the metal, which was poor quality to begin with. I really like the idea of making my own (wood) carving knives cause it allows any shape we could want ( or rather, able to make) ...

I have used Arbutus wood for years in other woodworking projects. it is realy hard but notoriously brittle and cracks easy when drying.....which makes me nervous about it in pipe making for cracking....but as far as light woods go it is amazingly beautiful. often white-yellow and some nice pieces be...

glad you mentioned that. These pipes are made from very different woods, mostly for ceremonies and such, so they are not being used 5 times a day kind of thing, but they should hold up to the test of time (as in not burn through). right now i am going to be practicing with different things for the b...

well that is certainly good to know. strange thing is i found them on the net in some very expensive pipes. so is there any kind of alternative for this kind of situation? i know glass works well, but is not easy to work into a wood pipe, and breaks easy. would perhaps the only alternative be a hard...

if your in need of them, i grow a fiar bit of tobacco i can send some seeds off. right now i am growing out kentucky 9 and N. rustica.

Hi folks, I am new around here and am not exactly sure where to post this. Browsing around looking at pipes, i see many have thin metal insserts lining the inside of the bowl. I am wondering what are the preferred types to use? I want htis because i make pipes based more ono aesthetics which means s...