There is a cherry tree here on the farm, and considering it was a holiday weekend(not that alot of people don't already have endless days off, nor do farmers actually get a day off) I decided to make a few pipes here on sunday. I've made a few cobs before but have been wanting to make a fruit wood pipes for the hell of it.
It was from a fallen branch, so it was already dried out a bit. Although I had to dry the wood out more again after drilling, or it will crack( which happened on one of them), which I mended with some epoxy, by coating the base of the bowl with it and putting some waxed sinew on the shank.
The first and second pipe have a direct 4mm airway drilled straight from chamber to stem. I am still taking it easy and breaking them in, but they smoke amazingly well. Perfect airflow and no moisture buildup whatsoever. Might modify the second one to take a regular from one of my other pipes.
The third one uses an vintage MM mini cob stem from a broken pipe I had. It smokes Ok, but I feel like the restriction of air at the bit causes some.moisture buildup.
Anyway, fun little project. Will see how long they last. My only mistake was to drill and smoke without 100% drying the wood. This causes cracking, especially from an over eager amateur pipe maker who fires up his pipe right after he puts it together haha.
I'm really impressed with how the first pipe smokes due to the optimal(in my opinion) drilling for the airway, it really is confiming my opinion that a properly drilled airway is by far the most important factor in any pipe. It's not a hard concept, but so many cheaper pipes(and I have quite a few) just get it so wrong. Oh well I guess I'll smoke my own, if they don't just crack and explode after a few weeks...haha. Will see how that goes.
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It was from a fallen branch, so it was already dried out a bit. Although I had to dry the wood out more again after drilling, or it will crack( which happened on one of them), which I mended with some epoxy, by coating the base of the bowl with it and putting some waxed sinew on the shank.
The first and second pipe have a direct 4mm airway drilled straight from chamber to stem. I am still taking it easy and breaking them in, but they smoke amazingly well. Perfect airflow and no moisture buildup whatsoever. Might modify the second one to take a regular from one of my other pipes.
The third one uses an vintage MM mini cob stem from a broken pipe I had. It smokes Ok, but I feel like the restriction of air at the bit causes some.moisture buildup.
Anyway, fun little project. Will see how long they last. My only mistake was to drill and smoke without 100% drying the wood. This causes cracking, especially from an over eager amateur pipe maker who fires up his pipe right after he puts it together haha.
I'm really impressed with how the first pipe smokes due to the optimal(in my opinion) drilling for the airway, it really is confiming my opinion that a properly drilled airway is by far the most important factor in any pipe. It's not a hard concept, but so many cheaper pipes(and I have quite a few) just get it so wrong. Oh well I guess I'll smoke my own, if they don't just crack and explode after a few weeks...haha. Will see how that goes.
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