Houten

I have begun work on my first pipe, made completely by myself.  No drilled blocks.  No preformed stems.  A chunk of raw cut briar.  Some ebonite rod. A piece of acrylic.  From raw form to finished polish, I will be making this one from start to finish.

I got up late Saturday morning (7/24) and headed for Wayne's house to begin work on my next pipe.  Fought oddly insane traffic for a Saturday morning, but made decent time and was only a half hour late.  The Wayne I speak of is Wayne Teipen who has made quite a few fantastic artisan pipes.  He has opened up his shop and knowledge to me and I jumped at the opportunity!  I am blessed to live so close to a pipe-maker who is willing to assist me as I begin this journey into the art.

Wayne was gracious even though I was a bit behind.  We chatted for a little while and then headed for his shop.  He had already been working a little one of his newest creations when I arrived.  He asked what I wanted to make so I pulled out my drawings of the pipes I hope to make.  I showed him a bent acorn I wanted to be the first venture into making my own pipes.  He liked the shape and told me to transfer it to graph paper, then draw the chamber, draft and tenon holes.  A cool looking pipe, a little less cool to make.  You see, my stem shape and size didn't allow for the straight draft hole.  So, a few pages later and the both of us messing with how to arrange the pipe to fit, we decided to tackle that one later.  I also had drawn a straight brandy/volcano shape pipe with a nice extension and a military style bit.  He thought that would be a good starting place.

After tracing out my design onto graph paper and altering it slightly to make it look a little better, I cut out a template from which I would transfer my design to the block I would select.  With some sage advice, he helped me select a nice block and orient the grain properly.  Using the template from before, I drew the design onto one side of the block.  Next I drew out the differing holes and centerlines.  Now to the drill press.

Beginning with the draft hole, I lined up the block in the machine vise and drilled, having already faced of the block to give myself a flat surface with which to start the hole.  Slow and steady, running the drill down to the depth mark I had made.  First cut done, on to the next, the extension tenon hole.  More lining up and placement, then brad point bit cutting through the briar.  Now the chamber hole.  Reset the block and faced it using the same forstner bit from the draft hole.  Change out the forstner for a 3/4" spoon bit and here we go!  Augered out the briar, keeping the bit cool with compressed air which also removes the briar chips so you can visually check your progress.  Near the breakthrough point where the draft hole meets the chamber hole, the compressed air is applied to the draft hole.  When the auger breaks though, the air will be allowed to pass through from the draft hole which blows out the debris.  This is done to avoid drilling the chamber hole too deep, which can make for a poor smoking experience.  All drilling done, I had just missed the centerlines of the chamber and draft holes slightly, but nothing too horrible.  All-in-all, I am pleased with my first attempt at briar drilling!

Next step was to make the extension which will be glued to the block later in the process.  I decided to use and ebonite extension with a white acrylic accent band.  Chucked up the ebonite in the lathe and turned the tenon to the same diameter I drilled earlier in the briar.  After that, I finish-drilled the draft hole in the extension to match the one in the block.  A couple of slight adjustments to the tenon diameter and it was ready to go.  Now the acrylic band.  Marked out a small piece and began to drill.  A little too much pressure on the acrylic and....snap!  Just as the drill passed through the thickness, the small piece broke in two.  Wayne grabbed another piece, and with a little lighter touch, I had my extension piece.  De-burred the acrylic and glued it to the extension.  Figured that would be a good stopping point for the day as I had to head back home to finish my Ebay sales.


A great day's work complete, I was pretty pleased with the progress.  I can't wait to get back in the shop and do more!