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Ok, so I'm a new pipe maker and I have gotten to the point where I have figured out the mechanics of making a pipe (or at least found a method that seems to work for me.)

Now, I am beginning to look at taking the next step, which is how to make a beautiful pipe.

I have seen a lot of comments regarding grain and grain orientation, but I haven't yet figured out what I should be going for when I look at a blank and decide what style of pipe to make that will take the best advantage of the grain.

Some are easy, for example I know that you want to find grain radiating from a central point to make a volcano.

But what about the rest? Is the Holy Grail of pipes one that has bird's eye on the bottom and vertical grains going up the sides? Most of the Briar blocks I have gotten aren't really cut in a way that would facilitate that design.

help...

There is not formula. It's art.

As for the typically orientation of the grain on a block, if plateaux what you described is not so much the Holy Grail, it's normal. The birds eye is on top and bottom, and the grain goes up the side of the block. (The birds eye are simply the terminus of the grain, so this makes sense.) If your blocks don't do that, I'd say its safe to assume you bought cheap briar.

Now that you've made a few pipes you've seen how the grain works. Do a google search on Bo Nordh and look at his pipes. I think you'll see how he used the grain to maximum effect, and how he had to orient blocks in order to pull what he did out of them.

Have fun!

Wow, Bo was quite an artist!
I particularly like the butt cheek pipe.



From looking at his work I can see how he effectively uses the grain of the wood to influence the shape of his pipes, particularly when he makes a pipe from a plateau block.

The pipes he made from a ebauchon block, however, seem to be focused primarilly on the shape of the pipe without regard for the grain.

Please let me know if I am barking up the wron Briar bush.

I somehow doubt Bo made many pipes from ebauchon...

There is no wrong bush.

There's no "wrong" way to use grain. There are arguably more and less effective ways to present it, and the first decision when you make a pipe is probably a mixture of "how do I orient the pipe in this block of wood" and "what does the grain look like vs the shape of the pipe".

If you look at typical volcano-shapes, they follow the grain almost exactly, and well, that's almost the point of the shape. So doing a volcano with a randomly grained piece of wood is probably good practice in terms of shaping, but it's not going to sell for what a nice straight-grain volcano might.

If you get into making tiny thin little pipes, some consideration should be given to which direction wood is strong in (along the grain), but other than that, the sky's the limit.

Sasquatch wrote: If you get into making tiny thin little pipes, some consideration should be given to which direction wood is strong in (along the grain), but other than that, the sky's the limit.

Woa. I actually never thought about that when it comes to briar. So, if I want to make really thin shanked pipes(which I do...) the best way, in regards to strength, would be to have the grain run straight from the bowl to the stem?

Basically, yes.