Diamond Club

Click to play our newest game, solitaire!

Spade Heart

How to Blow Glass Pipes at Home

Matt Cardy/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Many smokers enjoy glass pipes, as they allow tobacco flavors and aromas to circulate unencumbered for maximum enjoyment. Glass pipes don't introduce any added flavor such as a wood pipe would. Glass pipes are also much easier to clean and can withstand extreme heat. You can make your own glass pipe at home.

Things You'll Need:

  • Tongs
  • Curing Oven
  • 50-Millimeter Base Wall Glass Piece
  • 6-Millimeter Glass Poking Piece
  • Torch
  • Metal Punching Piece

Pull the point of the 50-millimeter base wall glass piece away from the torch flame.

Put the 50-millimeter base wall piece of glass into the torch slowly so that the glass does not crack. Keep the glass hot and spinning the whole time or it may crack from the temperature difference. Spin the glass piece using your fingers until it is glowing red hot. Make sure to keep your arms and shoulders steady to keep the glass heating evenly. Once the glass reaches a soupy consistency on the edge where you are warming it, keep your arms steady and gently pull it.

Turn the glass piece upside down so that the bottom piece of glass hangs. Allow gravity to assist you in stretching the bottom glass piece from the top base piece.

Adjust your torch flame to a cutting tip.

Cut the glass piece at the edge where the glass strand meets the base wall glass piece.

Cut a hole in the end of the second piece of glass tube by placing the tip into the torch flame. This will give you a glass tube with which to blow your glass pipe.

Round the end of the glass tube that you are using for your pipe by turning it in the flame of the torch on the cut edge to smooth it out.

Hang the glass piece once it starts getting thicker with a bubble to allow gravity to straighten the tube out. Blow in the end of the tube so that the end of the glass tube becomes rounded. Put the glass piece back into the torch and allow it to be positioned at an opposite angle.

Allow the pipe to cool slightly and blow a few light breaths into it.

Allow the bubble to continue forming in the end of the glass piece while turning it in the torch flame.

Allow the glass piece to cool slightly and blow a few breaths into it to make the end of the pipe more round.

Warm the 6-millimeter piece of glass in the torch flame while warming the tip of the base glass piece.

Insert the 6-millimeter glass piece into the base glass piece center on the rounded part and press it through. This allows you a place to hold the glass even while it is in the torch flame.

Align the glass piece in the torch flame in the specific spot you would like the mouthpiece to be and turn it while staying away from the glass tube.

Turn the pipe while the glass is thickening into a glob-like consistency. Take the glass pipe away from the flame torch and hang it upside down while allowing gravity to pull the pipe to make a stem for the glass piece.

Allow the pipe to cool while pulling it away from the torch so that it does not form ripples on the outside.

Break the 6-millimeter piece of glass off the end of the base glass piece.

Round the edge of the glass piece where you broke off the 6-millimeter piece of glass by turning it in the torch flame.

Choose an even side of the glass piece to make a bowl and apply the glass piece to the torch flame at the end where your bowl will be. Continue to rotate the glass piece in the flame. Set the torch to cut.

Place your punching piece into the glass piece and allow it to sink for about two seconds. Remove the punching piece and put the glass piece back in the torch flame.

Take the glass piece out of the flame and use the punching piece again to form the bowl of the glass piece.

Put a flat side directly on the opposite side of the bowl to allow for the glass piece to sit steady when laying on a flat surface. Put the glass piece in the torch flame on the side you are using as the flat side to heat it up.

Take the pipe out of the flame and press the side onto a flat metal material to press the flat side into the pipe.

Make a carburetor on the glass piece by heating up the side of the glass piece next to the bowl and, using a punching tool, punch a small hole in the side. Place the metal punching tool in the bowl of the pipe to give resistance so that the bowl won't warp when melting the side for the carburetor hole.

Use tongs to hold the pipe upside down by the bowl, and keep them clamped while turning the glass in the torch. Heat the glass at the appropriate location where you want the stem of the pipe to start. Turn the glass while heating to soften it so it can be pulled apart. Keep the flame at the end of the stem to warm it up and use a punching tool to make a hole in the stem so that smoke can be sucked through. Keep rotating the glass piece in the torch flame to ensure that it is warmed correctly and rounded out evenly. Place the glass piece in a curing oven when you're finished cutting it.

Our Passtimes