I wonder, have you considered a hand at the other part of the pipe, the "business end"...?
I'm one of those unlucky guys who is sensitive to briar dust (it's like someone keeps spritzing pepper spray into the room), and since my shop is in my house (IS my house is closer to the truth :lol: ) it would be asking for trouble. People who are sensitive just keep getting worse over time, not develop a tolerance.
I still happen to have the pipe that caused me to discover the sensitivity, though. Made it in 1979, literally in my kitchen with improvised tools. Hadn't a clue, just dove in. No chance of making a stem, of course, so I just stole one off another pipe and plugged it in (you can see that it's never been shined up since, either.)
How the stellar wood came into my hands made for an interesting enough story that it appeared as an article in a magazine called
The Compleat Smoker in the early 90's.
Then, a couple years ago, I decided that since #1 didn't really count because of the stem-cheat, I'd try making a "real" pipe, but just the once. If it didn't fly, that would be it (because of the dust thing). Chose a shape that I'd carried around in my head for years, but never once saw a specimen of. A weird hybrid Dublin-cutty-semi-churchwarden. It turned out OK.
Both pipes smoke quite well, believe it or not, though the full-on retro "table pipe" design of #1 is kind of embarrassing to take out in public. (Table pipes were all the rage in the late 70's, along with pornstar moustaches, wide ties, and lime green suits.)