Woods Other Than Briar?
- Thread starter masterpython
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Masterpython I made a few pipes out of Iron Wood. Stuff is really hard, and isn't easy to turn on a wood lathe. The pipe at the top along with the big cigar pipe on the top right are both made out of it. I haven't smoked the cigar pipe yet, as I wasn't really happy with the "stem" I done on it, I will redo that and shorten it some. The other one smokes pretty nice for the short distance between the bowl and lip.
I was wondering about ironwood. I haven't done any work with it in the shop, but I've chopped, blocked, hauled and split my fair share. It is an amazingly dense wood, and I was shocked the first time I noted how much weight it carried when compared to other similar sized pieces of maple and beech. Up at my parents' place, folk in the hood only put one piece of ironwood in the wood stove at a time (mixed with other softer wood) because the belief is that it burns hotter than other wood.
-- Pat
-- Pat
Mountain Laurel? Really? I have wooded lots full of it. But, I've always been told that the wood of the Mt. Laurel was so toxic that you never burned it in piles. But, if it makes a good pipe, I may have to give it a go.
I agree with jfox, that will make some great looking pipes. What would it take to talk you into sending me a block from that log to try out? :wink:
Is the Ironwood mentioned the same as Australian Ironwood, which is a subspecies evergreen pine? If so, what part of the tree is used?
The Australian Ironwood was used to over-plant Midway Island in the Mid-Pacific, part of the Hawaiian chain but as far from Honolulu as
Omaha is from New York City. I think it was the trans-Pacific cable company that planted them when they stationed people on the island,
to give it some landscape. It passed from them to the airlines, and then to the Navy for many years from before World War Two until
the 1990's, and now it "belongs" to the Department of Interior. But perhaps this is a different Ironwood.
The Australian Ironwood was used to over-plant Midway Island in the Mid-Pacific, part of the Hawaiian chain but as far from Honolulu as
Omaha is from New York City. I think it was the trans-Pacific cable company that planted them when they stationed people on the island,
to give it some landscape. It passed from them to the airlines, and then to the Navy for many years from before World War Two until
the 1990's, and now it "belongs" to the Department of Interior. But perhaps this is a different Ironwood.
I will have to ask the guy I got it from at the local wood hobby craft center. I got some red oak from him to practice on but it was way to porous for use. He didn't smoke but I gave it to him for a show piece. He said he had something that was denser than oak but really heavy and handed me a big block of it. He gets it from a dealer out of Alanta, GA.
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