Persimmon Branch Pipe- Untreated?

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tokeyivxx

Lurker
Apr 8, 2019
2
0
Greetings and other formalities,
I was just a renaissance festival, and I got a pipe from one of the vendors. It is a piece of persimmon branch with some other piece of wood for the stem... I forgot to ask about that. Anyway, it was $20, looked cool, and I recently broke the briar pipe I had obtained from some cousins who were not using it correctly. The bowl on the branch was fairly narrow, so I whittled out a wider bowl and tried it out. Tasted really nice; unlike the temporary pipe I got right after breaking the first one, which tasted like plastic, threw that away. My point is, after seeing how easy it was to make this branch pipe, I figure I'd never need to buy a pipe again, so I started researching other woods and whatnot. During research, I kept coming across sealing and drying, which I am pretty confident was not done on this pipe that I got. I've been smoking it about 3 days now, and I still enjoy it, but I was wondering how important drying is for the "health".
Basically, can I just cut down branches and make a pipe on the spot, or is it crucial to dry and seal? Or will I just have to constantly remake pipes? Is the sap going to have any adverse effects on mah body? Is it any worse than the tobacco its burning with?

 

canucklehead

Lifer
Aug 1, 2018
2,863
15,323
Alberta
Most fruit tree woods are ok (cherry, apple, plum, pear, etc). Do NOT ever make any pipe or stem out of yew, it's a potent cardiotoxin. Some tropical hardwoods are irritants, you can check them out on wood-database.com

 

tokeyivxx

Lurker
Apr 8, 2019
2
0
So far, I've not had allergic reactions to anything that I've encountered. I had an allergy test 2016 with no reactions... But toxicity is something I may be vulnerable to. Though, so far so good.
As for the types of woods, I was just going to research them as I came across potential material. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for the response guys, I appreciate it.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
You almost have to be a botanist, and even if you were, no studies have been done on most woods related to use as tobacco pipes. With some plants, some parts are fine and others are toxic. I'd stick with established brands and materials, or at the least, with an experienced carver who knows exactly what he's doing. I have several fine smoking pipes made out of Mountain Laurel by my go-to carver, but I'd pass on one made by a beginner or someone I didn't know. Would it be the right plant? The right part of the plant?

 

winton

Lifer
Oct 20, 2010
2,318
771
I am always concerned with people who want to experiment with new woods for a pipe. WHY????? Pipe smoking has been around for hundreds of years and the overwhelming experience of millions of pipe smokers is that a pipe should be made of briar, meerschaum, corncob, or clay. During WWII, briar was largely unavailable, so pipe carvers experimented with other woods. Once briar was available again, they went back to briar.

 

pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,268
4,261
The only wood I would trust is wood that has been used for making pipes in the past - briar, pear root, cherry and maple. But that's just me personally.

 
I don't know how it is listed in regards to toxicity, but persimmon is in the ebony family. I have a few in my orchard. The wood is beautiful and sought after by many Japanese craftsmen. The outer white wood is very soft, soft enough that you could scratch it off with a fingernail, while the inner back heartwood is very hard. You may not see any of this heartwood in a branch though. But, the striations of hard and soft, black and white makes for some very beautiful carvings and woodwork.

But, for a pipe... I know that ebony is rather toxic, and persimmon is in that family.
It is a fruit, but apples and pears are more closely related, whereas a persimmon is more like an apricot or peach, in that it is astringent. So, there are a lot more noxious oils in the whole plant.
Better to make you a set of golf clubs or a guitar from the wood. :puffy: IMO

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
There's a persimmon festival in Colfax, N.C., every year. My wife harvested some persimmon off some little trees on an easement across the street from us, but a woman who lived across a ravine came and claimed the trees were hers. They weren't as the city plainly stated, but we didn't want a war with a neighbor. She moved away, probably never making any use of the persimmon; we only saw them fall and get eaten by birds. Then the power company cut the little trees down. We may try again to get a persimmon tree to grow in our yard. At the persimmon festival, we were being driven back to the parking lot in a trailer behind a pickup and the wheel of the trailer fell off. Luckily we didn't roll, or there would have been limbs and perhaps lives lost among the benches full of people (lots of kids) in the trailer. I think I've sworn off persimmons.

 

winton

Lifer
Oct 20, 2010
2,318
771
MSO, we had several persimmon trees on our property growing up. As a woodturner, now I wish I had some of that wood to work with. I wonder what a persimmon tamper would look like. The only thing I remember about these trees, is that it was a pain to mow under them, with lots of rotten persimmons on the ground.

 
On my trees, peaches apricots apples persimmons etc, nary a fruit ever touches the ground. :puffy:

A lot of people have this impression that persimmons are sour. But, they don't have a shelf-life, so the supermarkets will put out unripened persimmons (do not eat these), but if picked fresh and orange right off of a tree, they are a deep sweetness, like an apricot but sweeter.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Cosmic, yes, my wife is a country girl, before she moved to NYC and environs, and made various persimmon desserts, and they were nice and sweet. She had me picking them before the real estate tyrant announced her imaginary claim to the trees. Much of the public is nuts, as we know.

 

acidpox

Can't Leave
Nov 18, 2018
460
317
Where I grew up we had persimmons around and the best use we had as kids for them was to trick an unknowing victim into eating a unripe one. The faces made is pure gold, may have to bring that trick back now that I'm thinking about it.

 
Persimmon trees can be grown in USDA plant hardiness zones 4 through 9. The American persimmon can tolerate temperatures down to -25 F. (-32 C.) while the Asian persimmon can tolerate winter temperatures down to zero.

from the orchard almanac.
Here is a cross section of the wood grain...

6688d1232511772-permission-persimmon-persimmon7.jpg


And, here is something made of the heartwood. It is stronger and harder than ebony, so it is used in making things that need to flex, but is very hard. Archery bows and things that need acoustical properties...

grptacmacassar.JPG


 
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