pipemakersforum.com

Hi everyone!
I am wondering a bit about alternative mouthpiece materials.

I have seen some pipes made with briar mouthpieces (Norwegian Tabago) and also some with beautifully cut horn mouthpieces (believe I saw some examples of this a while ago on Trever Talbert's homepage).

Recently I came over a book with (amongst other) some information about areas of usage of different wood material in the old days. Particularly interesting was that they claimed that Juniper (Juniperus communis), Maple (Acer platanoides) and Bird Cherry/Hackberry (Prunus padus) has been used for pipe stem/mouthpiece materials.

What is the general thought about this? Of course I realize that there is a reason for ebonite and acrylics being the dominating material but I just thought it would be fun to hear some thoughts about other materials and their advantages and/or disadvantages

Best regards
Jon

I'd guess the woods would require uncomfortable thickness for strength and have a tendency toward a short life span.

Bingo. Stability and durability are limited with wooden stems. You want to make a hobbit pipe? Give 'er. But don't expect the ash/maple/oak/sycamore stem to hold up to tooth wear and wet/dry cycling the way lucite will.

Bird bones, being hollow, should be better material, in theory, but I don't know if you can get them in 5/32".

we'll just have to breed'em that way, Sas. I'm sure there's some way to get a bird that has a copious amount of 5/32" bones... of course we could just save ourselves the trouble and thank modern science for the wonderful materials we commonly use.

Stem cells: check.

Owl: check (I hit the stupid bastards all the time with my truck).


Damn, I think we're good to go on this.

Sasquatch wrote:
Owl: check (I hit the stupid bastards all the time with my truck).

Start aiming for Albatrosses, and we might be on to something.

Haha, I've got it. We only need to grow bird "stem cells" (excellent joke btw) into the correct bone size! Since we are about to start growing meat in artificial tanks that shouldn't be a problem?!

I think you guys are of the same opinion as me, just wanted to here some thoughts about the, how to put it, "historical" use of materials in pipe making since i found that information that sounded interesting since I'm somewhat fascinated by natural materials.
Seems like a real risk of cracking with all the variations in humidity for a wooden stem.

Thanks for the humoristic but still relevant answers;) Made me laugh!

It is possible to treat wood in such a way that it becomes more or less impermeable to water. PEG and Tung oil are both reasonably good at it, but what they taste like, how they react with heat or smoke..... probably better off without.

Best to stick to the usual suspects really. Like Todd says wood stemmed pipes can be made, but probably not worth the hassle if you want something to last or to sell.

African Blackwood is probably the best wood that you could use for stem material.

It has a natural resistance to moisture. This is why it is used for making bagpipes.

It is also extremely dense and will allow for a surprisingly thin bite.

I have a stem that I cut with walls no more than a couple millimeters thick on the curve. And I've been drunkenly hanging a heavy pipe from it, clenched between my teeth, for months now with no problems. I've dropped it in the snow and on the ground a few times, left it in a wet rain jacket pocket for a few days, and all sorts of other things you'd normally want to avoid...

Not sure how it will last in the long run, but, so far so good.

I've also believe that amber can be used for smaller stems. And ancient opium pipes sometimes had jade mouthpieces.

I think if you wanted a wooden mouthpiece/stem, your best bet would be to use stabilized wood.

If you're not familiar with stabilized wood, it's basically wood that has been impregnated with a resin under very high pressure. It's usually done to softer woods like burls and spalted wood, etc., that are normally too soft to stand up to use on things like pens, etc.

I've turned a fair bit of it myself, and it's some seriously tough stuff! It's actually the reason why I made my own carbide-insert tipped wood-turning tools. It's definitely harder and more dense than any acrylic, acrylester, polyester or other synthetic material I've encountered, and I've turned a LOT of synthetics into pens over time.
It's also much heavier than normal wood or acrylic, likely because it's formed under such high pressure.

The first time I tried to turn it (stabilized Buckeye Burl), I used a HSS spindle gouge, and after about 30 seconds of turning the cutting edge looked like I stabbed it into concrete, and that's not at all an exaggeration!
I then switched to a tool I made that uses a 1/4" square HSS+ 5% cobalt cutting bit. Same thing, though this did last nearly a minute of cutting.
I then decided I would need carbide tooling to turn the stuff, which was true.

So if you really want to try a wood stem, pick up some stabilized wood. It can be found in most wood turning supply catalogs or through online vendors. I like to use Woodturningz.com for anything I can get through them. They're great to deal with, have good prices, low shipping cost and ship super fast.

If you do try it, let me know how it works.

Kenny

Thanks for the reply! I am familiar with stabilized woods but in my opinion, I don't think they would be suitable for any mouthpiece or in other way parts that comes into contact with the hot smoke. But what do I know, I never tried it in that sense it just feels wrong to me.

Other than that I kind of wanted the porous properties of wood to help adsorb moisture from the smoke=)

I don't think you'd have any issues with it being affected by the heat of the smoke. It's essentially acrylic, and acrylic has been used for stems for a long, long time, and on some very nice pipes too, so I doubt there would be any heat issues.

One thing you may want to look into are "M3 Volcanic Ash" pen blanks. It's made from volcanic ash and clay from Australia mixed with some sort of ceramic composite, is very strong, shatter and heat resistant, and is also hygroscopic, meaning it will absorb moisture.

I have one that I plan to make into a stem, though I may add a mouthpiece tip to it of acrylic. I just haven't been able to bring myself to cut it up yet, basically because I'm waiting until I make a pipe nice enough. (at $20 per 3/4" x 3/4" x 5" blank, it's not cheap!)

Also, if it were me, I would prefer a replaceable/disposable material to absorb the moisture from the smoke. I just feel a balsa insert in the stem would not only do a better job of moisture absorption, but it would also be "cleaner" than a wooden stem that performed the same function.

But, I am admittedly a total newbie to the world of pipes, and I may well be completely wrong. These are just my own thoughts based on, well nothing really. They're just thoughts!

I just don't like the idea of stank tobacco water festering in the wooden stem of my pipe, that's all. I'd prefer to toss out said stank water with a replaceable filter and have a nice, clean and fresh start.

Good luck!

Kenny

PS: If you do want to go with a "natural wood", Ebony, Katalox or African Blackwood would all be good candidates. I actually just last night made a stem from Gaboon Ebony for a stummel I made from Macassar Ebony. I've not applied any finish to it, as I've not decided how I want to handle that. Though I was able to get the mouthpiece quite thin, and it feels plenty strong in the teeth.

Blackwood, Katalox and Ebony are all very dense, tight-grained woods that can be turned thinner than many others without having issues with strength or cracking.

I just finished making a pipe with a briar stem. Does anyone know of a safe way to seal the briar on the stem to keep the moisture out of the briar?

Maybe try Salad Bowl Finish?

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/200075 ... quart.aspx

Todd

Jon Bood,
Are you interested in the entire stem or just the part that contacts your mouth?
Looks like most of the traditional materials have been covered. Horn, amber, jade, bone etc.. Hollow reeds are also used as pipe stems. Clay might be another alternative as well.

Check out knife and walking stick making suppliers. I saw water buffalo horn blanks large enough for pipe stems at a knife making supplier's website just a couple days ago. I think they were around 5" long by 1" diameter. Cane makers routinely bend horn using heat so I know it can be done if you want bent stems.

Instead of trying to find just the right bird bone I would use a heavy bone like a cow's femur that has thick enough parts I could carve a stem from it. It might be a good material for accent rings too. I don't know if it's possible to bend bone so designs might be a bit limited. A small rib bone might be interesting too because of the flat cross section and natural curve.

I used a maple stem in the first pipe I built. It didn't work well due to expansion and contraction issues. I finally glued it in and it's holding up fine now.

If you want wooden stems stabilized wood is a very good way to go. It would certainly solve stability and durability issues that you would otherwise have. Acrylic resin is used in the process. The wood is submerged in the acrylic resin and vacuum is applied. The vacuum forces the air out of the wood where it is then replaced by the acrylic resin. Once the resin is cured it would be as safe as any other acrylic stem. Stabilized wood is also available commercially in a wide range of species and colors. I believe commercial stabilized wood uses a combination of pressure and vacuum to achieve deeper penetration than vacuum alone. The only drawback is I don't think you can bend stabilized wood. One way around that would be to rough shape and drill the stem then stabilize it and clean the resin out of the airway before it cures. Some woodturners have made their own vacuum chambers to stabilize pen blanks and other small turning blanks with good results. I think there are also vacuum chamber kits available too. There is a substantial investment in the equipment (like a few hundred dollars) but you would have pretty complete freedom to make what you wanted.

Dang I'm long winded tonight,
Rodney

Just wax it like the rest of the pipe.

Salad bowl finish, then buff with carnuba. Also non-toxic.

I've started making all cherrywood pipes, including cherrywood mouthpieces. I turn the Cherry mouthpiece down to about a 1/4" ball on the end for the bite. I have been smoking mine for about 2 months, 1-2 times a week. I have given away several pipes to friends who also smoke about as frequently as I do. Mine personally has held up great, I'm not a "chewer", but just the weight of the pipe held in my teeth and my saliva has not made any significant damage to the wood mouthpiece. I would suspect (and plan to prove over time) that the hardwood mouthpiece is sufficient for some smokers (like myself)
If someone were a "chewer" I could imagine them gnawing their way through a wood stem in no time, except all but the hardest woods. I'll get back to you in 6months to let you know if my pipe is still holding up.
-j