The Poor Man's Pipe...

[El Dee]

Ok, so here is a little case study...

I am a college student with limited access to wood working tools and equipment that would help with fine tuning a pipe to perfection. I am on a limited budget, but I did buy a cheap pipe kit off of PIMO (the precut base and stem). I am very new to pipe making, and only have a knife and some sand paper to my name. Anyways so here are a few questions:

a.) What is the best way to go about forming this block with the limited supplies I have.

b.) How should I polish it without alcohol based stain?
i.) Should I use more conventional stains like ones available at Home Depot?
ii.) Do I even have to stain it (I have read some posts that suggest just waxing it)?

c.) What are the bare essentials necessary to make it nice and shiny?

d.) And for the sake of learning: What if I didn't have the precut block
i.) Where would I be able to find equitable wood in nature or around the dorm / house
ii.) How would I go about curing this wood for pipe making
iii.) How would I drill the holes necessary for smoking in both the briar/cherry/whatever and the stem?

Well those are all the questions I can think of now. I know this is a pretty tall order, but I have been reading some of the posts, and I am pretty darn sure you guys can handle them no problem. I really appreciate all the help!!

[KurtHuhn]

Ok, so here is a little case study...

I am a college student with limited access to wood working tools and equipment that would help with fine tuning a pipe to perfection. I am on a limited budget, but I did buy a cheap pipe kit off of PIMO (the precut base and stem). I am very new to pipe making, and only have a knife and some sand paper to my name. Anyways so here are a few questions:

a.) What is the best way to go about forming this block with the limited supplies I have.

Briar is very dense and most knives won't touch it except for carving chisels and gouges. You could give it a shot, but I'd be very, very careful.

If you want to shape a pipe on a budget, the old standby of rasps and files does the trick nicely. Believe it or not, a very fine rasp will cut better and faster than a coarse one. These won't be too expensive, and if you do end up becoming very serious about pipe making with a shop full of other tools, you'll still find yourself reaching for files and rasps fairly regularly.

b.) How should I polish it without alcohol based stain?
i.) Should I use more conventional stains like ones available at Home Depot?
ii.) Do I even have to stain it (I have read some posts that suggest just waxing it)?

Staining doesn't really polish a pipe - in fact, staining usually ends up making the wood somewhat matte in appearance.

Truth be told, you can use pretty any stain you like. Try to stay away from stains that have big warning labels on them, and you should be okay. I've never used these, but perhaps other members have found hardware store stains that work well. Hopefully they can offer some guidance here.

And no, you don't have to stain it. Briar is a gorgeous wood left all on it's own, and will develop a deeper and richer color as it's smoked.

c.) What are the bare essentials necessary to make it nice and shiny?

You'll want to be able to polish it with buffing compound, and then buff on carnuba wax - with separate buffing wheels. There's really not a good shortcut here. If you have an electric drill you can rig it as shown in the PIMO book, and use the buffing wheels available at the hardware store.

d.) And for the sake of learning: What if I didn't have the precut block
i.) Where would I be able to find equitable wood in nature or around the dorm / house
ii.) How would I go about curing this wood for pipe making
iii.) How would I drill the holes necessary for smoking in both the briar/cherry/whatever and the stem?

Well those are all the questions I can think of now. I know this is a pretty tall order, but I have been reading some of the posts, and I am pretty darn sure you guys can handle them no problem. I really appreciate all the help!!

Check out the Alternative Materials section of this forum - it's loaded with info about different woods. In short, most fruit woods, maple, walnut, ash, and a few others. Stay away from woods full of resin, like pine, fir, and cedar. The jury is still out on rosewoods like cocobolo and indian rosewood, but it's my personal belief that these are not suitable for pipes due to the relatively high incidence of toxicity reports.

If you're not cutting down trees or digging up briar root burls, you don't need to worry about curing the wood. Just make sure it's dry enough to work (hardware store maple and cherry always is).

Hole drilling is most easily accomplished with a drill press. You can, however, use a hand held electric drill to do the job as long as you've the wood secured so you're not holding the wood in one hand and the drill in the other.

[pennsyscot]

Many colleges have fine woodworking as part of their arts program. If your school has such a program, you could speak to one of the instructors about using the equipment.

[Danskpibemager]

I think if there is one tool that I could not do without for pipemaking it would be a dremel or other rotary tool and a handfull of cutting bits. The cost is relatively low compared to other tools for pipemaking. I think you could probably get by for about $120 including a flex-shaft setup. You can also throw in some buffing wheels for the finishing process and polishing. As far as wood is concerned, you can always order online from Woodcraft or any other supply house and pick up Cherry, Apple, Apricot or better yet Olivewood to practice on. Briar is readily available also from Pimo, Pipemakers Emporium, Mark Tinsky or Tim West. When I started pipemaking I had $20 in my pocket but I didn't let my lack of funds get in the way of my obsession. I now have well over $2000 invested and built it little by little. Good luck with your journey and welcome to the world of pipemaking!

Regards, Kevin

[alan]

Trying to make a pipe with a knife led to a lot of my blood ending up all over the house instead of in my body, where it belongs

A hand drill with a cheap disk sanding attachment is way safer than using a knife. Some cheap files will help a lot too.

Alla my work is done in the spare bedroom of my apartment- only 2-4 months until I move and get a wood shop! Finally!

[El Dee]

Well it looks like I am going to have to buy a file one way or another, but thankfully those usually don't run too expensively. Also I will definitely look around campus for some venues for woodworking as well! thanks again for all the great advice and i definitely have my work cut out for me. haha.

Just as a party favor question. - I do go camping a lot and since I have done a little wood working in the past. If i happened to find a nice piece of unseasoned cherry or other hardwood on the trail. what do you all think would be the best method of preparing and seasoning it for pipe carving?

Thanks again for all the help though and I really appreciate the time put into some of the responses!

[KurtHuhn]

Chances are, if it's on the ground, it's either too punky, or perfectly dry. If you're going to harvest it from standing wood, you really don't have to do too much processing outside of allowing it to dry normally. For sections of log, coat the end grain on both sides, any knots that come through the outside, and anyplace where there's no tight bark with a sealer like Anchorseal - plain elmers white glue will also work here.

[El Dee]

awesome, again thanks for the great advice!