Homemade Wooden Smoking Pipes
Wooden smoking pipes that are hand carved are often sought after by collectors, and can be a fun hobby. Many people like to whittle wood. Carving pipes from wood can be quite creative and often, pipes are decorated on the bowl section with intricate, personalized carvings. People who smoke pipe tobacco can use their own pipes, or carvers may simply enjoy this art form of woodworking.
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Things You'll Need
- Chunk of maple wood block, 3 inches by 6 inches
- Pipe magazines
- Tape measure or ruler
- Drill
- Drill bits, different sizes
- Drill press
- Whittling tools
- 220-grit sandpaper
- Pipe varnish
- Sharp carving tool
- Small art paintbrush
Instructions
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Get a chunk of maple block from a local hardware store that sells wood. Draw a pipe onto the wood chunk in the shape of your choice, or if you are not artistically inclined, cut out pictures of pipes that interest you from pipe magazines and use one as a blueprint to trace a pipe shape onto the maple block with a pencil.
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Make sure the pipe is adequately sized, as the actual magazine size of a pipe may be smaller. Measure the stem and mark on the block 4 1/2 inches, and the bowl end itself should be 1 to 1 1/2 inches long.
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Drill a 1/16-inch draft hole into the center of the pipe using a drill press with a 1/16-inch drill bit. Drill a hole in the bowl part of the pipe with a 1/2-inch drill bit. Make sure the smoke flows adequately through the pipe bowl and out the other end of the stem. The smoke will flow adequately if both the draft hole and the bowl hole are drilled to these size requirements.
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Use a drill press to drill a hole in the center of the pipe stem. Make sure the hole is no bigger than 1/16th inch. Use a drill bit of this size to eliminate the need to measure, and bring it down swiftly onto the pipe stem one time, ensuring that the drill bit goes all the way through.
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Carve the wooden pipe out of the block by hand, or if you do not wish to whittle the wood, use a band saw to quickly and efficiently cut the pipe down to size. Use whittling tools to smooth the pipe down to size, once the bigger chunks of block are sawed away.
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Take 220-grit sandpaper and sand the pipe once the shaping is complete. Roll the sandpaper into a thin tubular shape, and sand inside the stem to remove any wood that is loose or rough. You don't want to inhale that or have that part of the wood splinter under flame. Make sure the pipe looks like a pipe, with rounded edges and tubular stem.
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Carve any type of symbols or designs that you like onto your pipe using a sharp carving tool. Sand away any loose wood, and remove wood dust with a small paint brush. Keep the pipe a plain wood in its natural state, or use a pipe varnish, one that is made for finishing homemade pipes, and coat the pipe with the varnish, using a small art paintbrush. Let dry, and apply another coat, if desired. Wait till pipe is completely dry before using.
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References
- Photo Credit pipe image by Anthony CALVO from Fotolia.com
