Thanks for all your comments guys. I will take on board about toxic wood, the pipes I've made so far smoke great. I'm sure at some point I'll make a duff one that will be a disappointing smoke. It's just enjoyable carving them too, liberating a pipe from a piece of wood discarded by nature is satisfying. I don't have a plan I just go where the wood takes me. Bigvan and frennchy11 as for the drilled stems I have some 200mm drill bits I use. I put the naturally bent wood stems carefully in a vice and gently tighten to take out bend then drill them, then release the vice and stem springs back to its original shape or i will drill a straight stem and then steam bend it. I know some of you guys are true traditionalists in the pipe world and my pipes may not appeal which I do understand, perhaps I'm harking back to the primitive times when man had no knowledge of briar, the properties of it, he just used what he had to hand to fashion a smoking device .
*edit* - Tweaked your punctuation for clarity. -Jason