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I've never made a pipe that still has the plateau on it. I drilled up a piece of briar tonight and it looks pretty good so far.

Do most pipes with the plateau on them end up free hands? What shapes would look with this wood?






I've been through the shape chart, but nothing's whispering to me let alone screaming. Any suggestions will be considered!

Thanks.
Nick

Honestly? There's about 7 different pipes in that wood - off the top of my head.

Your idea isn't a bad one, though it doesn't make good use of the grain. Try flipping it upside down, so the plateaux is on the bottom. You may find the possibilities grow quite a bit.

So what shape would you make it if that piece of briar was in your shop? It wont look goofy if I try an English shape and leave the plateaux on top?

And I screwed up by putting the plateaux up top? Live and learn, I guess. Next time I'll do that. Is that so you get the tight birdseye on the bottom of the pipe? Is it more desirable on the bottom?

Thanks for the advise, I'm a pipe making super noob.

The blocks with the plateaux on the top are the outer sections of the briar and they ideally have nice radiating straight grain as you see in the photos. Plateaux blocks can be used for any pipe shape the same as an ebauchon block which is an inner block usually cut with a cross-section of the grain. You don't have to leave the plateaux on the pipe. Learning to read the grain on a block of wood is crucial to making high grade pipes. For most shapes, it's desireable to have the grain radiate from the heel and run straight up the sides of the bowl ending in birdseye on the rim. You've already drilled this block in a way that doesn't maximize the use of the grain so I wouldn't worry too much about what shape it could be and concentrate your efforts more on a pipe that is true to shape. It's a nice block of wood though.

Tip: Drill your tobacco chamber deeper so that the bottom of your airway terminates at the bottom middle of the bowl. Also, it looks like your burning wood when drilling. You want to drill at around 400 or 500 rpms or slower if possible.

On second thought, you could still get a curved/leaning cherrywood out of that block with that drilling that would still accentuate the grain. Let me see if I can photoshop an illustration.

Here's what I'm talking about. It's a sucky illustration because I don't have the software that sasquatch has but you can get the general idea. The shape can be arranged to follow the grain better than I've illustrated.

When I look at that block, I see a big dublin.

I see a cutty with the stem facing the other direction. Grain would be perfect, but the shank may be a little short.

wdteipen wrote:The blocks with the plateaux on the top are the outer sections of the briar and they ideally have nice radiating straight grain as you see in the photos. Plateaux blocks can be used for any pipe shape the same as an ebauchon block which is an inner block usually cut with a cross-section of the grain. You don't have to leave the plateaux on the pipe. Learning to read the grain on a block of wood is crucial to making high grade pipes. For most shapes, it's desireable to have the grain radiate from the heel and run straight up the sides of the bowl ending in birdseye on the rim. You've already drilled this block in a way that doesn't maximize the use of the grain so I wouldn't worry too much about what shape it could be and concentrate your efforts more on a pipe that is true to shape. It's a nice block of wood though.

Tip: Drill your tobacco chamber deeper so that the bottom of your airway terminates at the bottom middle of the bowl. Also, it looks like your burning wood when drilling. You want to drill at around 400 or 500 rpms or slower if possible.

I think I get it. You want straight grain on the bowl, not the birdseye. Leave the birdseye under the bowl. I'm really glad I joined this forum, I'm getting one heck of an education. As for the drilling, I'll slow down my speeds and feeds. I think part of the problem is my 1" forstner bit was already cutting dull so it made a lot more friction. Not sure why the 3/16 airway was burnt... probably the wrong RPM on the drill press, but my other holes didn't burn so I'll have to look at my drill bits. Would it be worth it to drill out the extra 1/16 I left at the bottom? How much of a difference will I notice when I smoke it? I don't have spoon bits, so I use a Forstner, a 1/2" drill bit and a dremel to make the bottom of my bowls. I've rounding them out more on other pipes, but haven't sanded the bottom of this one yet.

JeremyV and Edward: Thanks for the suggestions, but I think with the tobacco chamber I've already drilled I can't do those shapes.

Kind of bummed. This is the first plateaux block I've bought and I feel like I've kind of wasted it. Oh well, I'm sure some day down the line I'll look back at this pipe and laugh a little at myself.

There are no rules as far as where birdseye and straight grain should go on a pipe. It's up to the pipe maker to decide how to place the shape in the block. This doesn't come easily at first.

I think Wayne came up with a good solution with the poker shape.

You need to get some proper bits for drilling your bowl. Either S&D rounded off or some spade bits shaped to your preference. A forstner bit is no good for drilling pipe bowls. A 1" bowl diameter is huge. 3/4, 13/16 and 7/8 are the most common bowl diameters.

Keep at it, and you'll waste a lot more blocks down the road. Everyone does.

Rad

JeremyV wrote:When I look at that block, I see a big dublin.

Yeah, nearly all plateaux blocks could be Dublins or flipped over to be volcanoes which is fine but you have to be more creative to pull out other shapes.

RadDavis wrote:Keep at it, and you'll waste a lot more blocks down the road. Everyone does.

+1

I'm still wasting them. It takes study and practice to learn to maximize the wood grain.

+2 get used to it buddy. We've all thrown out nice blocks. It happens. Or a guy gets half way through a pipe and thinks "Ahh, I drew this basically upside down on the block. Damn!".

I like the Teipen alternative, in terms of having the shape accentuate the grain. Like Rad says, it's not like there's rules about what a pipe has to be, and you can just make a pipe with any given block. Sometimes, you get an especially nice block and the grain is easy to read and easy to work with, and it will literally inspire you to make a certain shape, and that's always nice. Other times, you are going to be asked to make a 2" tall poker and you just have to find a block that will do that nicely, whether it's birdseye or flame grain or whatever. Not every pipe is gonna be a perfect straightgrain, no matter what.