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I made several crude DIY pipes from maple and poplar doweling. They smoke very well, but the bowls tend to burn through. Is there a treatment that can slow down or prevent burn-through in softer wood? Can you treat a bowl with mineral oil, olive oil or some other (safe) material to slow down...

Also posted elsewhere: I had asked on BofB about a painting I liked but could not locate.  I finally found it in The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, "Independence": Oldbear

I found a painting I had inquired about here.  The painter was Frank B. Mayer, the painting "Independence": This is my idealized self image while smoking.

I just started a "melange jar". Since I often mix or blend my favorites and there is usually a small amount left over after I pack my bowl I started keeping the "overflow" in a separate jar, to be mixed into a blend uniquely mine. It will be a mixture of VaPers, perique blends, occasional...

My crude, homemade poker still smokes better than most of my other pipes, it is cooler and draws well. So I tried adapting the wood stem to another pipe. I bought a bitless pipe off of ebay and cut a mouthpiece out of a soft poplar. It doesn't feel as nice in the hand as my poker, but it...

I like filtered pipes and I like the shape of a square stem; so I found a Medico Apollo estate pipe at a decent price and it just arrived. Now I know what Brylon is. The bowl is a bit big, and the acrylic stem seems cheap but it smokes well and feels nice in the hand. The composition bowl...

I have asked this question before, but hope that eventually someone might recognize this and be able to help me. There is a painting of a colonial farmer reclining on a porch railing smoking a pipe, probably a long stemmed clay pipe that I cannot re-locate. It may have been used in an ad...

Among my collection of pipes I still find that this home-made poker still smokes better than the rest and is my favorite smoker: The long stem smokes cooler and the wood bit is pleasant to use. I like my Missouri Meershaums.  They feel nice in my hand and are easier to clean and maintain...

I recently purchased my first Viking (with a briar bowl and metal stem). It has a heavily brushed bowl that had a red stain. This pipe might have been unused or very little used. There is no filter or provision for one. Cleaning appears to be by unscrewing the bowl and wiping out the metal...

I have a recent estate pipe purchase that cleaned up and smokes very well - a new favorite! It has a deep tooth mark in the stem/bit just past the lip. I intend to try making a tool that I can gently heat up to try to work this out. Has anyone done this before or have any advice for ironing...

Has or does anyone tried soaking pipe stems/bits in a mixture of whiskey or brandy, perhaps with a small amount of honey or other material to remove any burnt tastes? Oldbear

I have this small sample of an otherwise unmarked tobacco labeled only "4h". It appears to be cube cut, dark and mild, though it has a strong nicotine kick. I suspect it is perique, any other guesses?

I like the idea of "making your own" and have been experimenting with making perique.  I went as far as visiting the Poche' facility in Louisiana and trying making perique in small (one pint) batches. I wrote up my experiment and results in a short essay elsewhere...

I am trying to find an image that I particularly liked; it is a painting of a colonial farmer smoking a clay pipe on his porch railing. Can anyone recall where it is? Was it recently used in a catalog or ad? Oldbear

I need a piece of interesting briar for a non-pipe project. I need a piece about 1 1/2" diameter and 3" to 4" long for turning on a lathe for a special tool handle. All of the ebay suppliers I see are from Europe, is there a US supplier? Oldbear

My early and preliminary experience with producing my own tobacco suggests that perhaps just packing away tobacco leaves in slightly damp condition in jars (probably with loose fitting lids to allow gas escape) might result in interesting fermentation, perhaps over a few months or a year. Has...

I needed several pipe tools and tried my hand at blacksmithing.   These are Pipe Nails: Hot hammered from large brite common nails.  The edges are hammered to shape and left rough. Oldbear

I have begun experimenting with small batch pressure type fermentation. So far I am only using a commercial burley and one pint wide-mouth jars. We will see how this works in a year or so! Oldbear

This is probably a frequent newbie DIY question: What do you use to glue together parts of a pipe? The glue has to be heat stable and non-toxic. Most of the aliphatics (Titebond, etc) are not great at higher temperatures. Resorcinol? CA? Oldbear

This is from the site: http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/chemicalsinsmoke/p/nicoboost.htm "Two Forms of Nicotine: Nicotine exists in two forms, acid(bound) and base(free). In tobacco smoke, free nicotine molecules vaporize more easily than bound nicotine molecules. Once nicotine vaporizes into a...