Pipe nail

[oldbear58]

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

 

[riff raff]

That is the perfect tamper, in my book. No fiddley fold-outs, etc. I frequently walk around with a similar Brebbia nail stuck in my glasses.

 

[George Kaplan]

Very cool.

 

[d4klutz]

Very nice! I use the cheap aluminum ones you can pick up cheaply. I love them compared to the folding ones. What did you use to heat the nails? Did you cool them in water, oil, or just cool down naturally?

 

[oldbear58]

Very nice!  I use the cheap aluminum ones you can pick up cheaply.   I love them compared to the folding ones.  What did you use to heat the nails?  Did you cool them in water, oil, or just cool down naturally?

I'm not sure that there is any advantage to quenching or tempering with low carbon steel like in a house nail.  I heated with a MAPP torch (propane would have worked as well) and hammered on a small anvil to shape, then quenched just for convenience.  I did some shaping on a grinding wheel, but re-hammered to retain the texture and polished with abrasive cloth to remove burrs.

I have several pipe pouches, each with a tobacco selection, a lighter, cleaners and a tool and I wanted a few of these around.  Its hard to find good pipe tools, well let me qualify that... the "bong shops" have lots of pricey pipe tools, but its hard to find ones that would be used by real pipe smokers so I made a few.

Oldbear

 

[oldbear58]

That is the perfect tamper, in my book.  No fiddley fold-outs, etc.  I frequently walk around with a similar Brebbia nail stuck in my glasses.

My opinion exactly!

Oldbear

 

[huffelpuff]

Nicely done! I used to do something similar but would mount them in antler pieces. Yours are much sleeker!

Jim