All,
If you have missed the first 4 pipes in the series, you can find them through links 1, 2, 3, and 4.
For the 5th pipe in the Alaska themed 7 day set, I must admit, I had grown a little weary of pouring so much effort into the design, so I decided to take a bit of a break with this one. (Rest assured, pipes 6 and 7 are fairly elaborate). I looked at the pipes I already had in the series, and let's be honest, they are pretty wild, so I decided to have pipe number 5 be fairly simple, traditional, and not too crazy.
A simple theme that could accomplish this, while still having great significance to my home state of Alaska, was wood. This left me with dozens of different wood species to choose from, and while I was tempted by the elaborate options that SE Alaska's old growth timber industry provided (I mean burlwood bands, saw blade metal accents, etc.) I have very little connection to that industry myself. The wood species that means the most to me, and many others here in Alaska, is birch.
Birchwood is an extremely valuable resource in Alaska for numerous reasons. It's sap and syrup can be harvested, as many an adolescent boy is aware it's bark can be a fantastic firestarter even in pouring rain, it grows a fungus here colloquially known as "Birch Punk" or even more colloquially as "Birch Funk" that when burned acts as a great mosquito repellent (I'm not sure there is a more valuable resource in Alaska than that!), and is also a great and beautiful wood to use in building furniture, particularly live edge slabs that display beautifully grained heartwood inside the almost pure white borders of the outer tree. However, it's primary use, which is far more essential than any of those above, is heat. Birchwood is plentiful, easy to fell, easy to split while still green, and once seasoned becomes extremely light, burns extremely efficiently, and even smells good. It is the preferred species for those of us who heat with wood. Which in the bush, is mostly everyone.
As mentioned above, I wanted to keep this one fairly simple and traditional, so I went for a traditional pot shape, which is one of my favorites. My goal here was to have the pipe maker try to find grain in briar that was similar to the grain found in the heart wood of birch, which is quite beautiful, and I could only describe to him as "kind of like dirty, slightly messy straight grain" (see photo of birch slab attached). It took the pipe maker a few tries, but he did about as well as I could hope for. I also had him accent this pipe with a band of actual birchwood on the stem, accented by a couple of thin brass rings on either end. The beautiful, tightly packed birdseye on the rim and bottom were a nice bonus. And for once, that's about it! I wanted this to be a simple and beautiful pipe, and that's exactly what I got.
Ladies and Gents, the Birchwood Pot, by David S. Huber
If you have missed the first 4 pipes in the series, you can find them through links 1, 2, 3, and 4.
For the 5th pipe in the Alaska themed 7 day set, I must admit, I had grown a little weary of pouring so much effort into the design, so I decided to take a bit of a break with this one. (Rest assured, pipes 6 and 7 are fairly elaborate). I looked at the pipes I already had in the series, and let's be honest, they are pretty wild, so I decided to have pipe number 5 be fairly simple, traditional, and not too crazy.
A simple theme that could accomplish this, while still having great significance to my home state of Alaska, was wood. This left me with dozens of different wood species to choose from, and while I was tempted by the elaborate options that SE Alaska's old growth timber industry provided (I mean burlwood bands, saw blade metal accents, etc.) I have very little connection to that industry myself. The wood species that means the most to me, and many others here in Alaska, is birch.
Birchwood is an extremely valuable resource in Alaska for numerous reasons. It's sap and syrup can be harvested, as many an adolescent boy is aware it's bark can be a fantastic firestarter even in pouring rain, it grows a fungus here colloquially known as "Birch Punk" or even more colloquially as "Birch Funk" that when burned acts as a great mosquito repellent (I'm not sure there is a more valuable resource in Alaska than that!), and is also a great and beautiful wood to use in building furniture, particularly live edge slabs that display beautifully grained heartwood inside the almost pure white borders of the outer tree. However, it's primary use, which is far more essential than any of those above, is heat. Birchwood is plentiful, easy to fell, easy to split while still green, and once seasoned becomes extremely light, burns extremely efficiently, and even smells good. It is the preferred species for those of us who heat with wood. Which in the bush, is mostly everyone.
As mentioned above, I wanted to keep this one fairly simple and traditional, so I went for a traditional pot shape, which is one of my favorites. My goal here was to have the pipe maker try to find grain in briar that was similar to the grain found in the heart wood of birch, which is quite beautiful, and I could only describe to him as "kind of like dirty, slightly messy straight grain" (see photo of birch slab attached). It took the pipe maker a few tries, but he did about as well as I could hope for. I also had him accent this pipe with a band of actual birchwood on the stem, accented by a couple of thin brass rings on either end. The beautiful, tightly packed birdseye on the rim and bottom were a nice bonus. And for once, that's about it! I wanted this to be a simple and beautiful pipe, and that's exactly what I got.
Ladies and Gents, the Birchwood Pot, by David S. Huber
