Pipe Woods

[jaybird]

What are some of best woods to make a pipe out of? I'd like to try carving one.

 

[unclearthur]

About any fruit wood is good. Some nut bearing woods are also nice. Of course briar is the favorite.

 

[kennerth]

I have had success with Black Walnut.

 

[jaybird]

Do you folks whittle the stem as well or order them online? I've seen wooden cherry pipes offered on the Missouri Meershaum sit. Anyone on the forum smoking this one? They seem inexpensive.

 

[kennerth]

I buy mine. I have paid $14 for a fancy black lucite stem from a fancy shop. One of my local shops has a jar of bits that people didn't want that they sell for $5 apiece, some are very nice. Places like JH Lowe online have good deals, but shipping adds to that cost. Or you can buy a lot of them cheap on ebay. Hope that helps.

 

[kennerth]

Check out some of my walnut pipes on the "Black Walnut" forum. #3 and #4 used free wood and $5 stems and turn out nice enough. Can't beat that price!

 

[bigvan]

Jaybird, just a few things to keep in mind...
"Cherry Wood" is also a name for a SHAPE of a pipe (flat-bottomed cylinder with a straight shank which angles up) regardless of the material from which it's made. So a "cherry wood" pipe may or may not be made from the wood of a cherry tree.
Also as noted in a prior post, the vast majority of wood pipes are cut from briar. Some carvers use more exotic woods (olive wood and morta being the most popular) but you should be careful when choosing an exotic wood. Some can be toxic! In short, briar is the material of choice for pipe making for a REASON.

 

[jaybird]

Good to know van, thank you.

 

[ontariopipeguy]

where would one get his hands on some briar to try carving....?

 

[smokindawg]

With Walnut, it makes a decent enough pipe, but when your cutting and sanding it, make sure and wear a dust mask as the dust from Walnut is very toxic from what I understand. Hard on the lungs.
Of course, you should do this with any wood unless your using a good dust collection system.
I've made a couple of my own stems and you should know, you can put almost as much time in a handmade stem as you can the making of the pipe itself. So for now, just learning pipe making, I'm using premade stems, although I do reshape them and also add delrin as a tenon.

 

[juni]

You can buy ready-drilled pipe kits of briar wood. I think this would probably be the easiest way to get started.
Maybe something like this.

 

[jsullivan]

Ive made pipes from Black Walnut and Cyprus and both have turned out nice. You just have to be more careful when smoking them because they tend to get much hotter than the traditional Briar. If you don't break them in right they will crack so be ware.

 

[ejames]

Mulberry works great!