First Ever Attempt at Carving a Pipe - a Rustic Nosewarmer

[ontariopiper]

Hi folks,

I just finished up my first ever pipe build and am reasonably pleased with the end result. I've certainly paid more money on a cheap off-the-shelf pipe, and I get the bonus of claiming this one as my very own creation.

I started with one of two briar blocks I bought from a local gent who had had them on his shelf for years. The chambers had been drilled out but curiously not the airways, so it was definitely a "for learning experience only" project. I won a lot of 3 acrylic stems on ebay, which helped, as I do not have the tools to turn my own stems (yet!).

Anyway, I messed up more than once and backtracked a couple of times as is usual for me when tackling something new, but I ended up with a nice little nosewarmer. The pipe tops out at 4-3/4" long, with a bowl height of 1-5/8", an outside bowl diameter of approximately 1-1/4" and a bowl diameter of 3/4".

I plan to fire up the inaugural bowl this evening!








More pics are available on my DadsPipes blog. Thanks for looking!

 

[RobJ]

That's a pretty sweet looking little pocket pipe. Looking forward to hearing how well she smokes. Nice job.

 

[Brewdude]

That sure looks pretty dang nice for your first attempt Ontario!

8) 


Cheers,

RR

 

[RDPipes]

Nice try for the 1st one but, I fear that your going to end up smoking the tenon being it's so close to the chamber and or getting a good bite of heat.

 

[ontariopiper]

Thanks gents for your comments and feedback. Cartiphilus - the short shank is definitely one of my aforementioned goof-ups I'll see how the first bowl goes, though I won't be at all surprised if I need to look at a shank extension. In fact, I have already looked through my collection to see if there was a potential donor shank to be had among the few cheap estate pipes I have on hand, but no luck.

Coming as this one was from the beginning of someone else's aborted project, I'm mainly just glad the end result looks like a pipe! :lol: :lol:

 

[friar_jay]

Well done.

 

[ontariopiper]

I'm happy to report that the inaugural bowl went very well for this little nosewarmer. I sat out on the patio and enjoyed a bowl of MacBaren's Mixture last night. I kept to my usual smoking cadence and found that things stayed generally cool and comfortable, though perhaps a touch hotter than my longer pipes. I will also have to watch out for gurgles with this one, as the short shank collects a critical mass of moisture faster than my longer pipes, but overall, I'm quite pleased. Certainly no worse than your average drug store pipe. :cheers:

 

[MichaelM]

Looks great for a first attempt!  I can't imagine how good that first smoke must have been in a pipe you made yourself
Mike.