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A neighbor recently felled a thick dogwood of theirs, and allowed me to have some of the wood. It is a nice, tight-grained hardwood, with a slight pink-ish hue. I have only seen one pipe made from it before, and very little mention of anyone using this wood in general.

I have uploaded some images to my photobucket account, so that you can see what I have to work with:

This was an image with my Zippo sitting on it, for scale reference.

This one is a little closer, so that you can see the grain.

These two below are of a block that I pulled from a much smaller and uglier log from the same tree:
End View:


Side View:


The little white specks are where the tissue that I wetted to dab water on the wood rubbed off. The grain in this wood is somewhat irregular, but attractive. If anyone knows of a reason that this lovely wood should not become a pipe, please speak now. ( Later is fine too, as it am easing myself into this hobby.)

Thank you, and my apologies for the image overload.

Even if the wood turns out to not be suitable as pipe material I say give it a try. If it turns out nice add a bowl insert if needed. Good luck and have fun.

I would cut it into blocks and boil to reduce drying stress checking or splitting and sealing with anchorseal or paraffin wax to air dry. I've used that method with applewood with good results.

Wow. I hadn't really considered that it will need to be cured. (Did I mention I'm a total newbie?) I just did a quick search, and there are so many methods.

Based on what I have read so far, your way appears to be one of the faster methods, only taking a few months of air drying after being boiled for a while.
I thought I was going the cost-effective route by using my own wood, but it seems that to make something that is less likely to taste bad, I'll need to invest in a few things.

I still plan to use this lovely wood, but I'm thinking that for my first few pipes in the meantime, I'll break down and get some briar.

I'm going to try to have some Anchorseal around in the future, just in case.

thats a good idea seal the end grain and let it air dry slow. if you don't use it for stummels it would probably look good for shank extensions. there's a couple ways to speed it up you can kiln dry with a heater in a couple weeks. or rough turn it green then throw it in a brown paper bag for a few weeks that's a bowl turners trick if the walls aren't too thick and the wood is forgiving it will dry and shrink without splitting.

McKay wrote:Wow. I hadn't really considered that it will need to be cured. (Did I mention I'm a total newbie?) I just did a quick search, and there are so many methods.

Based on what I have read so far, your way appears to be one of the faster methods, only taking a few months of air drying after being boiled for a while.
I thought I was going the cost-effective route by using my own wood, but it seems that to make something that is less likely to taste bad, I'll need to invest in a few things.

I still plan to use this lovely wood, but I'm thinking that for my first few pipes in the meantime, I'll break down and get some briar.

I'm going to try to have some Anchorseal around in the future, just in case.

If you wish to try your hand at making pipes without the expense of briar, you can buy cherry wood which is inexpensive and smokes well also. I have also seen folks make pipes out of lemon wood (I have bought some, though I haven't made a pipe out of it yet, as well as other hard woods, most a hell of alot less expensive than nice briar.

Though, of course, briar is king.

wmolaw wrote:

McKay wrote:Wow. I hadn't really considered that it will need to be cured. (Did I mention I'm a total newbie?) I just did a quick search, and there are so many methods.

Based on what I have read so far, your way appears to be one of the faster methods, only taking a few months of air drying after being boiled for a while.
I thought I was going the cost-effective route by using my own wood, but it seems that to make something that is less likely to taste bad, I'll need to invest in a few things.

I still plan to use this lovely wood, but I'm thinking that for my first few pipes in the meantime, I'll break down and get some briar.

I'm going to try to have some Anchorseal around in the future, just in case.

If you wish to try your hand at making pipes without the expense of briar, you can buy cherry wood which is inexpensive and smokes well also. I have also seen folks make pipes out of lemon wood (I have bought some, though I haven't made a pipe out of it yet, as well as other hard woods, most a hell of a lot less expensive than nice briar.

Though, of course, briar is king.

I'm planning on going to our local farmer's market/flea market tomorrow, and I'm hoping someone will be selling some cured wood, or a big pot to cure some wood in, or both. I'll be looking for a decent pipe to copy also. I doubt I'll find a Dunhill, but it will be better than just having pictures to look at.

I say cherrywood or some cheap briar ebauchons for practice. Don't be scared by the price- it really isn't too bad if you buy cheaper briar to start- upgrade as you get better/ more comfortable.

When I was young, I had made a pipe out of dogwood for my summer bank fishing trips down at the local river. It was just a conical dogwood bowl with a hickory cane (bamboo or reed depending on where you're from) stem. It smoked very well with a load of Prince Albert and had almost no bite with the first bowl and after 4 or five good sessions it was all gravy! It didn't gurgle, the bowl didn't get real hot, and there was never an off-taste. The wood had been seasoned out in the elements for over a year from some land I had thinned out the underbrush and smaller trees for a neighbor so deer could move abouts more easily on his property. When they were green, I felled the 6-10' dogwoods rather easily with a hatchet and machete, but after they had seasoned out for a while I had a hard time cutting through them, even with a crosscut saw! Good luck and enjoy!
P. S. It took me two weeks with just a pocket knife to make my pipe out of this dense, tight grained wood.

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