Materials

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:51 am

FWIW, I can perhaps help if anyone has questions about working with a few alternate materials. I have made pipes from olivewood, morta (obviously), and meerschaum, and I have done a bit of work with clay (not actually shaping and firing, but finishing and fitting stems, decor, etc). One day, there will be a Talbert Clay to go with the briars and mortas, if I have my way...

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:52 am

tonymccallie wrote:Trever,
My wife is a potter, so I have access to clay and firing materials. I was wondering about how you would fit the stems to the clay. I have seen one of the Prungnaud pipes in first person and was wondering about the cork. Does it work well? Is it hard to come by? Also, do you now how he gets the clay so smooth without using a glaze?

Thank you for any information you can give.

Many blessings, Tony

Lucky guy! It's going to be a while before we can get a kiln. Gerard uses two types of stem fittings that I have seen - a cork lining in the clay shank and a delrin lining in the clay shank. Both work very well in all the pipes I have seen (I own and smoke 4, and have handled nearly 80 at least). The flexibility of the fit doesn't allow the sort of perfect stem-to-shank join that one desires in briars (and frankly, neither does his pricing budget allow for such extra work). Cork is extremely easy to come by here since we have a mountain of it from wine bottles

I don't know, however, how he accurately turns it to size to fit the clay mortise without tearing it all to pieces. I think the delrin linings would be much easier to turn and fit, and FWIW I prefer them anyway for long-term durability. A nice white delrin lining looks quite nice in the clay shanks. For accurately sizing the shank mortise, you'll need some reamers. Drill bits will only chip and crack the clay, but a reamer can be used by hand to open a lumpy clay hole to an accurate ID size to fit an insert.

As for how he gets the exteriors so smooth, I haven't a clue! There are a lot of things I want to ask him when my French gets more functional.

Post by **Tyler** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:24 am

Tony,

If I could jump in, I have some black Delrin here at the house. It is a plastic that it very strong and has a slippery feel. It is often used for tenons for more fragile stem materials such as acrylic.

Obviously, I can show you the black Delrin I have when you come down to visit in a few weeks.

Tyler

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 5:57 am

tonymccallie wrote:Trevor,
Thanks for the information. I do have a question though. What is delrin? Is it just a white plastic? If it is more solid than cork, I would think it would be easier to use.

Thanks again and blessings, Tony

Delrin is a form of plastic that is flexible and has great surface lubricity. I use it for the tenons in all my pipes because it is stronger than either vulcanite or acrylic and the "slickness" of the surface helps make a nice fit. It works well as the mortise liner in these clays because it has that little bit of stretch to it, and of course it comes in white so it blends in.