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Hello gang,
I'd like to present you my first attempt to make a pipe.






It from a piece of briar, not pre-drilled and apart from the premold stem (oh yeah from Steve aka vermontfreehand) it's as handmade as it can get All I've got is a hand drill, dremel, files and loads of sandpaper. Both the bowl and the drafthole (and the mortise) is literally hand drilled without a drill stand.
There are loads of errors and stuff so I'd like to ask you to comment, critize and advise. Thanks for your opinions!

PS: there are pits and on the left side even a dark spot so the briar material is inferior like hell...

I think it looks great. Nice shine to the finish and a slight contrast. How did you do the drilling?

There's cumberland pre-fabs???? this I didn't know.

Pipe looks like a great first. Very regal. Next time, make a big one!

bandkbrooks wrote:I think it looks great. Nice shine to the finish and a slight contrast. How did you do the drilling?

Very very carefully At first I have drilled the draft hole - almost to the point where it should meet the bottom of the bowl. Then I have drilled the chamber with a 4mm, then deeper with a 9mm then I engaged PIMO's chamber drill bit and slowly took out the material, checking at each pass, "where am I" with the caliper. Near the end it was a constant switch between the 4mm draft hole bit and the modified forstner: a little bit from here, a half a millimeter from there until I could blow air through the draft hole and dust came out from the chamber.
Yeah one could do this easily and quickly with a lathe or at least a drill stand but I've no money to spend on any of these right now so I have to walk the old school way....

PS: Sasquatch: it's 73-74 grams, that's 2,61 ounces so this ain't no small 5-minutes-pipe

Just two words: very nice

When I first used lathe for drilling, I was indignant that it was not nearly as precise as my hand drill!

When hand drilling, I first drilled a pilot hole for the chamber with a forstner bit, staying a little short of the intended depth, then followed with a round-nose twist bit, still short of the intended depth. Next was the precision job - draft hole. I fixed the vise on the cross bar of a stool and let the stool lie on the floor so that I could stare down at the workpiece. Chuck the block in a manner such that the planned draft hole is at right angle to the floor. With one leg on the stool to stabilize it, I drove the hand drill down toward the planned bottom of chamber. The crucial tip here is to concentrate 70% of your attention on left-right centering in a manner similar to training a pistol, 20% on front-back orientation, 9% on not over reaching your planned depth, and only 1% on flexing your triceps. The 1% part aims to force you to go very slow and keep to the center. After the draft is finished, re-drill the chamber to the point where the draft hole precisely touches the bottom. The previous chamber drilling was made shallower than the planned depth because you can always drive down a bit more to meet the target, but if the draft hole enters several mm above the bottom, it not only affects smoking but also makes shaping of the bowl chin pretty risky.

I'm surprised both by a first pipe looking so "right" and by the fact that you have just made your first pipe after hanging around here for this long, dangerous planner!

Actually I wanted to wait with a little more, at least until I get a drill stand...but when I saw that there's always this and that coming before my drill stand (not speaking of a lathe) I decided to act

hi tritrek, that's really a surprise! Since I've read posts here for a long time, thought that you have already made 100 or more pipes!

This one looks really great! People can introduce it as their 10th, 50th, 100th... The shape reminds me of danish style. And the briar hat beautiful grains.

Just nice job! Thanks for sharing

Eventually! Hopefully you have the disease now as well! Keep them coming

Such a fine pipe and the first one!
Very well groomed ,balanced from the neck to the rather massive but very well shaped bowl.
Keep on the good work as you are also infected with the pipe making virus .

Great looking pipe ya got there! Good job! How does it smoke?

Thanks again and FYI it smokes great! Has a rather big bowl: I've filled it to 1/3 with rubbed out Marlin Flake and I enjoyed it for 1'40" so I guess I will have to find a light and quick burning mixture into it, because I love pipesmoking but smoking a pipe for 3+ hours must be a pain

That's the second-best first pipe I've ever seen (mine was the best). Really nice work.

Very good first pipe..Braavooo..I was wondering how many hours you spent for this pipe, i am a new pipe maker and i have few tools like you.

very nice pipe brother

rev

jmoss wrote:Very good first pipe..Braavooo..I was wondering how many hours you spent for this pipe, i am a new pipe maker and i have few tools like you.

dude... this topic is almost 3 years old...

Still quite a nice 'first pipe' though...

Thanks folks! That pipe smokes very well since then