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I've thinking about all the beautiful woods that only get used as accents on pipes. Some woods might actually be alright to smoke out of, but there's that "what if" factor. So, I was thinking of attempting to make a pipe out of some other type of wood, maybe bocote, and turning down a briar bowl insert for it. Additionally, I would use SS tubing from bowl insert to the stem. To keep the smoke from ever touching the bocote (or whatever wood is used) the tubing would have to actually extend just inside of the insert. This brings me to my question...

If the tubing extends into the briar bowl insert then the insert itself would no longer be removable. However, I wouldn't want the tubing being the only thing holding the insert in place (well, that and hopefully a snug, flush fit.) However, would it not be best to also use some sort of epoxy as well? However, what sort of epoxy would hold up to that kind of heat? What is used on meer-lined pipes?

Is this all an exercise in futility? Just seems a shame to not display some other woods that are out there.

I think it may be wise of me to state that I am not planning on selling anything like this. It's just for my own experimentation. I know nothing will top Briar as far as making pipes goes. This is just something I've been thinking on and would like to test out.

Different subject, but the right place to ask it:

Have you ever thought about bringing back some self-harvested blocks of exotic PNG woods to play with?

LatakiaLover wrote:Different subject, but the right place to ask it:

Have you ever thought about bringing back some self-harvested blocks of exotic PNG woods to play with?

Yep. I brought back some smaller pieces this past time, but it's pretty tough to get them through customs. Also, I don't have much of an idea of what I am bringing back. I know the tribal names of the trees, but have no idea what most are in English.

Some of my early pipes were made out of strait-grain cherrywood... I pulled it out of the wood pile, and here in NW Washington the trees grow twice as fast (seemingly) and much softer than other places. My problem was that the tar from the tobacco soaked all the way through the pipe and first discolored the pipe, then made the wax peel off. I'm sure a harder wood would help with this, but it's the problem that I encountered.

Other than a snug fit, anyone know what is used to adhear meer inserts inside a briar bowl? High temp epoxy?

Shark nipples...just making conversation.

Shark nipples as a band material? This is gonna be an amazing pipe!

I was actually considering something like this, but instead of using SS tubing for the airway, why not use a briar tube? Just turn a little 10mm rod and drill a hole in your exotic wood, mount the briar tube and then drill the hole for the insert with a forstner (flat bottom hole) so the two match.

So yeah, both the tube and the bowl insert will be glued in place, but you'd have a normal briar pipe interior with an exotic layer all around.

I'm quite confident that with a sufficient thickness of briar, there is no heat issue with decent epoxy. The normal one I use is heat resistant up to 100°C. Taking into account that you can still hold some of my very thin-walled pipes in your hand whilst smoking, I think it's safe to say that after a few mm of briar, you'll never reach 100°C... (5 seconds at just 60°C is enough to cause a 3rd degree burn!)