I'm Calling This Pipe Bilbo's Gift: Morta, Silver, and Pearl

I finished up Bilbo's Gift last night. I have worked on it off and on over the last year. But with my new shop set up the inspiration just took off this week. It is number 10 for me and it is the first one that I have made solely for myself. It is Morta with a Sterling silver ring and mother of pearl lucite stem. The idea for this pipe came from The Lord of the Rings. Normally churchwardens are imagined because of Gandalf, but my inspiration comes from Bilbo. Towards the end of the book Bilbo gives two pipes to Merry and Pippin. They were made by the elves and they had pearl mouthpieces. I chose morta and silver with the pearl, because the livery of Gondor is black and silver. This was a pipe of firsts for me. I had never used an accent before, never set a delrin tenon in a Rod blank before, and never used morta before. The Morta block and pearl rod blank came from Steve Norse of Vermont Freehand. I had our own Cosmicfolklore make me the silver piece for the shank. I shaped the pipe by hand and also drilled it freehand Danish style. I've tried to do the method where you glue little pieces of wood to the pipe and use the pin to guide it, but I find that just holding it in my hand works just as well especially with my new lathe. Here are some pics of the pipe and me smoking the first bowl which was Escudo aged 12 years. It smoked wonderfully and I couldn't be more pleased!

This pipe probably took me about 15 hours from block and rod to pipe. But with other projects and moving due to a new job it got set aside. Now I have a new shop set up that is super organized with all of my tools accessible. I'm ready to rock.

Ed: My best friends father was a Chief Master Sgt in the Air Force. When he died I went up for his funeral. He was like a second father to me. His mom asked me if there was anything of his that I wanted. He was a smoker so I asked if he had any special lighters, so they gave me the zippo. I put a z-pipe insert in it and it is my main pipe lighter. I'm honored every time I use it. He was a great man.
Jvnshr: not sure what you mean by small holes. I use a 1/8 drill bit for my draft holes. I have one that is 6 inches long.
Reverendsasquatch: Yeah I am a purist too. I did enjoy the movies for the most part. But there were things that were changed that shouldn't have been in my opinion. I have the books on cd and have listened through them at least 30 times. Never gets old to me. My next pipe project is going to be a churchwarden for myself.