PIPE CARVING CONTEST RESULTS

[tNd]

Hey tNd im considering carving a pipe...I emailed PIMO 2 days ago...no response yet. Is this normal for them or were they prompt. Not trying to make a bad name for them or anything just wondering if maybe they didn't get the email.

i have no experience related delayed mails from what i can remember... they were allways very quick in every reply and everything... try contacting them again but change the subject line in something like "Pimo material info" or similar... maybe the mail went into a spam box or something automatically without their knowledge...
tell them that you send the mail allready and ask them to confirm that they have received the second mail... i think it should not be a problem...
regards, daniel

 

[tNd]

Any search re pipe kits will typically bring up the generic kits, and thenTinsky and pimco as the two 'high end' providers. I've only heard good things about both of those.

it is allways good to get the good material - but for the first pipe it is not really the material that is an issue - begginers mistakes and similar will be more of a problem here... so, almost any low grade material will do - we can't expect that the first pipe will be perfect...
Pimo does not have really good material but it was allways good for starters and even more experienced and the price is reasonable IMO... so, i would give it a go anytime...
i have no experience with M.Tinsky kits.... maybe they have better price/quality range...

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Besides amsmoke.com, where do you guys suggest to purchase your Tinsky/Pimco (or other) kits? I've gotten a few sites, but figured there were some "for-sure, go-to" sites that are reputable and through good experience?

It's true, a cheapo carver kit is perfect for the beginner (i.e., me) if you mess up, to heck with it. My efforts to carve came out okay, it isn't perfect, but it's certainly acceptable, and smokes great!

 

[Blackhorse]

I'd just google 'smoking pipe kit' or something like that...or go arounf to some of tbe online vendors and look under 'pipes' and if they have the the generic ones you'll see them listed. It shouldn't be too hard to find some.

Comment from someone experienced with both kinds...generic, and what I've already termed the 'high end' type (of which I've only done the Tinsky thing)...to me the difference was really in the quality of the stem, since briar is usially a crap shoot. Though the high end kit from Mark had excellent briar, the stem was perhapss a little harder to fit and finish properly...needed sanding and buffing. The generic kit had a military style push in stem, of lower quality material, but easier to finish. I REALLY appreciated Mark's job on the stem. I got a translucent tortoise stem to my size specification and a friend who also got a kit from Mark got an opaque white stem. Mine totally looked like Mark had cut it fresh from a rod blank...beautifull job. For what I think is a very small difference in cost, esp. for the non-plateaux kits, i'd prefer to have a kit with a block selected with my ultimate shape in mind and with a 'custom' stem. But that's just me.

 

[spv27]

My first carve your own pipe kit was an Eric Nording. The quality of the briar and stem were top notch. I carved that one into a freehand shape designed to fit my hand. The second kit i purchased was from American Smoking Pipe Company it was one of the small standard straight kits. The briar is of good quality but the bit whole was drilled slightly to large in the briair and the bit does not fit well in that it is loose. The bit has also required a lot of finishing and when I have it completed in a few days I will post some pictures.

 

[Briar_Bear]

first - i ordered a bent pipe kit... because of that i choose a fancy type of mouthpiece... after receiving the kit, i have seen that in reality i got a straight pipe kit and a fancy mouthpiece... there was not much to do about it - had to work with what i had..
second problem i had was the size - yes, you read it good - the block was huge ... i sent the drawing of what i wanted to make (it was something like a freehand Nording) to the pipe kit supplier and they have told me that the medium sized block will not be big enough.. so, i ordered a bigger one... at that time i was not thinking to make more than 2 pipes in a whole year (because of the money i had available but eventually i got hooked and found the way to make more)...

huge block gave me the chamber that is over 6cm high ... i could easily sand it down but i wanted also to keep the bark of the plateaux so, i had to figure what to do...the result can be seen in those pictures... a huge pipe that smokes preety much cool for about 4hours (my guess as i never filled it all the way to the top)...
in fact this was a really nice block to start with... no dots, cracks or anything on it... very nice....

i was making that pipe for myself for arround a month and a half - this took me so long just because i did not have all the tools - polishing wheels were needed...
she has several layers of carnauba there and surface looked really nice - i had luck to make it look nice first time i did it...
those are sweet memories when i look at it now - i am still using her but not that often mostly due to her size...

Awesome job on your pipe!! I hope to make one soon!