Making a Churchwarden Stem.

[douce52]

Hey gents,
I am not sure where this question should go. I have myself a bowl and I was hoping to make myself a churchwarden stem to go with it but I can't figure how to bore a hole all the way down the length of it. If any of you guys have any tips or tricks I would enjoy hearing them.
If this post doesn't belong in this section please let me know, I'll repost it where it belongs.
Thanks
Mike

 

[mso489]

I don't make pipes or stems, but it seems that the only price effective way to do this would be to drill the stem straight

and then bend it. Incidentally, some purists think that churchwardens should be fully arched, not straight or only

somewhat bent. I subscribe to that only because my Sav 601 is fully arched.
I'm sure it is possible to design a drill that could drill on a curve, but that would be one expensive piece of machinery.

 

[ejames]

Molded and drilled churchwarden stems are available. They will require some work to fit to your bowl and to remove casting flash.

Try this guy- he sells on Ebag as VT Freehand-- stevenorse@gmail.com

also-- http://www.pipemakers.org/

 

[douce52]

Thank you, guys I'll look around, that pipe makers site seems to have good prices.