Unfinished (but functional) manzanita branch pipe

[aaronv15]

This isn't a normal pipe - not crafted from a block, no lathe involved at any point. I cut a thick branch off a large manzanita bush and channeled the pith out, then backfilled with clay. It's 12" long; the branch is spiral shaped. Kind of a show piece, but I'm definitely going to use it.

Materials: A manzanita branch, disposable pipe cleaners and a candle (for molding the channel), polymer clay, and sadly, a little superglue I'm ventilating this pipe for the next week or so. Afterwards, I'll be comfortable smoking from it myself, but I'll never consider selling one of these unless I can figure some alternative to superglue.
Tools: sandpaper for de-barking and surfacing, drill, dremel.

Manzanita is notorious for hiding imperfections under the bark. If you try to drill out said imperfections they just spider cracks everywhere. I resorted to drilling a well into cracks, strengthening them with glue and then filling the well with clay. Again, an unacceptable choice for anything to be sold.

It was difficult to get the clay to set this way in a small channel, but possible. This took considerable experimentation, and I'm actually surprised I didn't split the branch. Baking the clay failed 4 times.

I'd love to perfect this method, because I think this pipe is very cool. Does anyone else have experience working manzanita and some suggestions on how to prevent cracks from spreading with non-toxic materials? I hunted in the sonoma hills for hours until I found a branch with an interesting shape and perfect bark. This turned out not to be good enough - there was still rot in the pith and drying the branch started several cracks that had to be reinforced. Also, I need to find information on how to attach a standard stem, but I suspect I can find that by digging around this forum.




Thanks for your input!
-Aaron

[Frank]

Manzanita burl has been used for pipes, at sometime referred to as Mission Briar - never was a successful enterprise. I've never heard of anyone using the branches for pipemaking.

Robert Perkins is/was experimenting with Manzanita burl - hasn't reported his success or failure with it in awhile.

[TRS]

From what little I understand about it, it's nearly impossible to prevent cracking....

[aaronv15]

Sadly, most people selling large quantities of manzanita burl for wood crafting understand little about selection.. Manzanita typically shows a high percentage of bark loss for whatever reason, at least here in California. Under these large sections of dead bark the burl will develop deep gouged cracks even before seasoning.

The end result: out of a burl that would normally be good for several blanks, you'll be lucky to get one that's usable. My understanding of the situation, anyway. Also best to select the burl in person, because most of what's available comes from lot clearing. Who knows how long some pile of wood has been sitting in a rancher's front yard?

Anyway, that's a slightly different topic - I was just excited that I got this curved pipe to work. Is there such a tool that could cut down the center of a curved branch all the way through? I won't exactly hold my breath. I have a feeling that no matter what, on a curved piece like this, the only way is with a fill.

[Sasquatch]

Even if you could cut that branch in halves (on a bandsaw, say), I don't know if you would ever get them together again. The tension in that kind of thing would probably leave you with two twisted little pieces that no longer "fit".

[Matt]

i have been making manzanita pipes for about 4 months now and ive made quite a few, a method i use to stop the cracking is to work with it as soon as possible and smoke out of it as soon as possible, it seems that when you drill it it pushes some of the liquid out and smoking out of it might help it dry over time, what i do to make them is cut of a branch then take off all the parts of the branch too skinny to work with then i cut the branch into sections i want to work with usually around 6 to 5 inches long then work with as many as i can it also seems to me that thinner branches seem to crack less