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Bought a Yello-Bole, Imperial Briar off the bay. It had the wrong stem, a few chips and needed TLC badly.
As I was rummaging through my materials, I came across a small offshoot rhizome that had a trailing end, that if cut and polished, could opt as a stem and mouthpiece. It was already oblong across one plane, just like the mortise on the bowl. So why not?
First, I had to pilot a 3mm hole through the root, as the leading root is devoid of holes. Due to crookedness of the root, I had to approach from both ends to avoid perforating the walls. That was a slow and tedious step. I use a guide-wire (from a medical kit) to check depth and fish inside.
I sanded down the bowl beyond the chips, scraped the inside and performed a salt and alcohol bath. I then hand sanded down a tenon on the root, and sanded both bowl and stem to mate at their edges. I then flat sanded the bottom of the bowl so it could sit. Then I followed up with a coat of dark brown stain, made from the extract of a black walnut husk and polished with carnuaba wax.
Today was a good day. Now to light this puppy up.
As I was rummaging through my materials, I came across a small offshoot rhizome that had a trailing end, that if cut and polished, could opt as a stem and mouthpiece. It was already oblong across one plane, just like the mortise on the bowl. So why not?
First, I had to pilot a 3mm hole through the root, as the leading root is devoid of holes. Due to crookedness of the root, I had to approach from both ends to avoid perforating the walls. That was a slow and tedious step. I use a guide-wire (from a medical kit) to check depth and fish inside.
I sanded down the bowl beyond the chips, scraped the inside and performed a salt and alcohol bath. I then hand sanded down a tenon on the root, and sanded both bowl and stem to mate at their edges. I then flat sanded the bottom of the bowl so it could sit. Then I followed up with a coat of dark brown stain, made from the extract of a black walnut husk and polished with carnuaba wax.
Today was a good day. Now to light this puppy up.
