Decided I really wanted the experience of drilling it from scratch as opposed to using a prebored kit. Fortunately I have some basic skills and a drill press. Really glad I did the boring. I learned a lot, but I had to work through lots of fear and trepidation at every step, and it is far from perfect. I hated the potential of ruining a nice piece of briar, so I decided to use a cheap very small (ER1) ebaucheon from Pimo. I used a molded stem bought as part of a great grab bag assorted from Pipe Makers Emporium. It was great fun to shape the stem to match this pipe, and I managed to put a couple of little ivory inserts from an old ivory piano keytop I'd salvaged (in my real life I'm a piano technician).
"The piano tuner's pipe". The little R shaped ebaucheon turned out to have some decent Birdseye and cross grain. What a great treat to see that start to emerge as I sanded, stained, and buffed.
The first effort turned out to be a little bent billiard. Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all and I suppose one's first pipe is always special to the maker, severely flawed of course, but special. It was first going to be a bent Bulldog, until I realized that was impossible with this little block, then it was going to be sort of a modified bent Poker, but all of a sudden as I was shaping it was turning into a bent billiard. What fun! A mess, but a fun mess!
Specs: 1 3/4" tall, just under 6" long overall
The tobacco chamber is 3/4" x 1 1/2" deep.
Mechanics: The airhole does not quite meat the bottom of the tobacco chamber as I had hoped. It is a little too deep, and I think the angle is perhaps wrong. I used the same angle for the airhole and the mortise, and I love the way a pipe cleaner passes, which is near perfect, but that angle for the airhole seems to have compromised the airhole relative to the chamber. It draws and smokes very well though, so perhaps I got away with it? The bowl is too thin, especially at the top. I'm worried it may burn out. It smoked very warm to the touch, but not hotter than some of my other thinner bowled pipes. The smoke was very cool and pleasant. The shank also got too thin relative to the mortise. I like the way it looks, but it I'm worried it is not mechanically sound. It might hold up with extreme care, but certainly not safe. A small flaw yielded a a very little chip at the edge of the mortise. Had hope to sand it out, but was not quite successful. It's not too distracting. The Ivory inserts looks a little funky, but not terrible. It is a nice touch, but using black epoxy instead of clear would have been a nicer implementation of it, and I think the integrity of this particular piece of Ivory was a little grainy and just didn't buff out like I had hoped.
Finish: I missed a couple of light scratches when moving up the grits. The stain is a bit lighter than I had hoped. I like the color, bit I think a darker stain might have shown off the grain a bit better. I used alcohol soluble aniline die. (a mix of Med. Walnut and Maple, on hand from an old piano finishing operation). I'll get some leather dye for the next effort. I was going to use Carnuba wax to finish it, but decided to leave it after buffing with Tripoli. It reminds me a bit of the GBD Virgin finish. I like the feel better than Carnuba, but it will likely get dirty after being handled. I have not liked the way my Carnuba finish feels a little tacky when hot (on the restoration work I've done). Maybe my Carnuba buffing technique is just flawed?
Many thanks to all of you for the great information on this forum. The Pimo book was a great help, and so were the many makers here and elsewhere that have posted great pictures, videos, and other instructive materials. What a great community this is. Thanks for making the joyful experience of pipe making possible for the rest of us. I have even more appreciation for the great handmade pipes I own, and all those I have seen and wanted. Now I'm also very excited about the possibility of adding my own creations to the collection.
Over all I was pleased for a first effort, but boy do I ever have a lot to learn about this! Any tips would be greatly appreciated, and please feel free to rip it to shreds. I want to learn.
Incidentally, I smoked this yesterday, and it was far from my best ever smoke, but I really enjoyed smoking a pipe I had made myself. I'm guessing many of you are like me and have only dreamed of making a pipe. If so, take the plunge. It is a fantastic experience!
