Today we will tell you how to make a hand-made pipe at home. If you already smoke, you need to customize this process: cigarettes from a pack and a lighter for three rubles are not a dude’s choice. The pipe is another matter.
I must admit, I smoked a pipe myself – until I quit, of course. It was an interesting matter. Hammering and lighting a pipe is a whole science, we’ve already told you about that. My pipe was always of interest to others: friends asked me to try it, and in public places (for example, in cafes and bars, until smoking was banned there) I always found myself in the very center of attention, as soon as I got comfortable with my pipe. In general, you probably already realized that a pipe is royal, especially if you made it yourself.
So, you will need:
- briar (wood);
- ruler;
- chisels for wood carving;
- saw;
- pencil;
- drill with different drill bits;
- compass;
- polishing machine;
- sandpaper;
- cutters – minimum 18 mm;
- time (lots of times);
- idea.
Idea
First things first, you need to understand what your pipe should look like. Draw the options on paper and choose the one you like best.
Embodiment
Cut off a piece of wood of the right size - your pipe will be just a little smaller.
Draw an outer circle - the diameter of the tube - and an inner circle - the diameter of the recess in it, where you will stuff the tobacco.
Now we draw the selected shape on the remaining sides of your block. All that’s left to do is to trim the wood so that the idea is embodied in your block (you grab the tools and work). As a result, you will get approximately what is shown in the picture.
Drilling
You need to drill a hole through which the smoke will enter your mouth.
As you can see from the picture, you first need to measure how deep you will have to drill. Caution: the walls of the tobacco chamber should not be thin, otherwise high temperatures They will destroy your pipe.
The wall thickness of the tube shown in the picture is 8 mm. The diameter of the tobacco chamber is 18 mm, the depth is 30 mm.
In the end, it is clear that dimensional characteristics depend on the chosen design.
Now you need to make a hole in the mouthpiece that will connect the mouthpiece to the tobacco chamber. Carefully drill a hole (a 7mm drill was used to make this tube). Then we change it to a smaller drill (in our case, 3 mm). Don’t forget to test - how well does it blow, is the connection between the tobacco chamber and the mouthpiece established?
Rounding it off
The tube should look like a tube, right? Who has seen a cube-shaped tube? This is some kind of cubism.
Grinding
This will require sandpaper and a lot of patience. Sand until you are happy with the texture.
Let's finish
We connect one to the other and make minor adjustments.
The handset cannot be used yet. You need to polish it - that's what a polishing machine is for.
Think about what you need the device for. For what purpose do people use such devices? In order to burn smoking material in them, and at the same time make it convenient to inhale the smoke released during combustion. Pay attention to two main elements present in any design:
- Reservoir or crucible. This is the main part of the device into which the smoking material is placed.
- Pipe. At first glance it sounds a little strange, but it is precisely this that protects you from burns. As the smoke passes through the chimney, it cools before you inhale it.
There are various designs. Which device should you choose in a particular case?
- Hookah. Many people prefer to use a hookah when smoking. Hookahs cool the smoke well and can be smoked for a long time.
- Tubes They are convenient to use when you are not sitting in one place. Plus, the pipe is easy to make yourself and easy to use!
Let's continue! What can the above devices be made from? Look around, you are literally surrounded by improvised materials!
- A disposable tube can easily be made from aluminum foil*.
- Roll the foil into a tube, wrapping it around a pencil or something similar. Be sure to leave extra foil for the crucible at one end. Then bend this end of the tube upward. Place the smoking material into the bowl formed by this edge of the pipe. Fix the edge so that it does not bend, but at the same time make sure that the smoke freely penetrates from it into the chimney!
- Apples. Natural material, from which you can also make a pipe.
- All that is required is to remove the stem and make a depression in its place, but not all the way through. Make a connecting hole next to the main recess through which excess smoke can be released. Then make a hole to inhale the smoke. To do this, pierce the apple at an angle of 90 degrees to the main recess. Place the smoking material in the recess and light it, covering the hole to allow excess smoke to escape.
- Do you only have a pen at hand? Not much, but it can be put into action.
- First of all, you need to remove the rod from the handle, leaving only its empty body. Now you will need a damper to prevent you from inhaling the smoking material. A tiny piece of aluminum foil* will work as such a damper; You can also cut a piece of a sink filter. Crumple the foil or filter so that it fits inside the pen body and push it inside. Then place smoking material into the pen body at one end and light it while inhaling smoke from the opposite end of the pen (with foil or a filter between the smoking material and that end). This will cause the pen body to heat up quickly, so be careful!
- Hookah. Do you want to smoke with all the comforts? You'll need a little more supplies, but it's worth it!
- Take an empty bottle (a plastic one is perfect), an empty sleeve (the crucible can also be made from aluminum foil) and a handle (more precisely, its body, empty of contents). First prepare the crucible. Next, you will need a screen that attaches near the bottom of the bottle; You can use one or more sink filters or aluminum foil for this. Screw the bottle cap on tightly and pierce it. Wrap the lid with electrical insulating tape or tape, covering the hole made in it. After this, make a second hole in the bottle near its top and stick a handle into it, also tightly wrapping the joint with tape or electrical tape. To remove excess smoke, make another hole in the body of the bottle opposite the one into which you stuck the handle. Ready!
- You can improve the resulting hookah. By running a plastic tube from the top of the bottle, where the crucible is located, to the bottom (still paying attention to the tightness), you will have a water hookah! After this, simply pour water into the bottom of the bottle so that the bottom edge of the tube is under water!
As promised, I am publishing an article about making a smoking pipe. I photographed the blank at every stage, but still couldn’t get around to writing text for each photo. A huge job, as it turned out.
UPDATE!!!
The article is already very outdated, but write a new one
I don't have time all the time :) But there is a more recent video, or rather,
whole movie. It's 2015. As soon as I find the time, I will definitely
I’ll make a new video, and separate videos for different stages
process. So follow the link,
subscribe to the channel:)
This ring is from. It is prepared in advance. Sometimes you have to spend a whole working day to prepare such rings from different materials with different sizes.
One end of the ring is ground strictly perpendicular to the axis. This side will be facing the bowl. The other side is not ground off - it will be ground off on the spot.
This is what the tusk itself looks like.
In addition to mammoth ivory, I also use other materials: cow horn, elk horn, various varieties wood (I love boxwood and bubingo root), acrylic imitations of all kinds of materials. Interestingly, the mammoth ivory pipe cannot be shipped to the United States. To protect rare animals, their laws prohibit the import of products from Ivory, and customs officers cannot distinguish an elephant from a fossil mammoth, which is already a little too late to protect. Therefore, only acrylic imitation ivory is used on the American market.
On a lathe I turned a cylinder at the end of the shank for inner diameter ring. I glued the ring with epoxy glue, then ground off the end and drilled the mortise. It is very important to do this in one installation so that the mortise axis is exactly perpendicular to the end. Otherwise, there would be a gap at the junction of the shank and the mouthpiece.
Precisely because the workpiece cannot be removed from the machine at this stage, rings have to be prepared in advance. A second lathe, even the smallest one, would simplify the work, but so far there are more necessary equipment, on which available funds are spent.
If you don’t make a ring, then you can do without a lathe, having only drilling machine. In this case, the end of the shank is sharpened with a Forstner drill. This is a cutter used for drilling for furniture hinges, for example.
The next stage is drilling the smoke channel. I drill it, feeding the workpiece with my hands onto the drill rotating in the lathe. Resting against in the right place with the back stock, I don’t let the drill go to the side.
To do this, you need to make a hole on the back side of the workpiece. The center of the rear stock will rest in this hole. There is another hole at the bottom of the mortise - the drill will fall into it.
The smoke channel is drilled to the required depth to the intended meeting point with the drill of the tobacco chamber.
Drill - 4mm. The diameter of the drill is a controversial issue. Most factory manufacturers make the channels narrow, about 3 mm. Danish craftsmen prefer a little wider - 3.5 mm. Most of our craftsmen drill at 4mm. American craftsmen also love wide channels.
A pipe with a wide bore smokes, in my opinion, tastier and drier. The probability of tobacco particles being sucked into the channel slightly increases, but for filterless pipes this is not a problem: the channel can be easily cleaned with a brush without disassembling the pipe. I myself have not encountered this problem, since I smoke mostly coarsely cut tobaccos of the English group. Danish tobaccos are usually cut smaller, which is probably why Danish masters prefer narrower channels.
The hole is drilled just below the center of the bottom of the mortise. In bents, this is necessary so that the brush passes easily assembled tube. When sanding the channel, the hole will be slightly bored upward to an oval.
For the next installation on the lathe, I drill the tobacco chamber and sharpen the bowl cylinder. The shape of the tube is not cylindrical at all, and will be drawn out with another tool, but there will be something to build on.
In the background is a drill for a tobacco chamber. This is a perk re-sharpened into a parabola.
The chamber is sharpened until it aligns with the smoke channel. The channel should enter the center of the chamber along the very bottom. A little to the right or left - no a big problem, and within reasonable limits I make such a mistake. A little lower, with a groove along the bottom - not entirely correct, I try not to leave such a groove. A little higher is definitely a marriage. A pipe with an over-drilled bore will not finish smoking until the end and will begin to “sour”, which will spoil the taste.
IN in this case everything is perfect. The exit of the channel will be even neater after grinding.
It can be seen that the glued corners have worn off and will not become part of the tube.
The next stage is turning the shape. In the background is a sanding disc with Velcro. I install it on a lathe, but you can adapt any motor, or even use a grinder.
Using a lathe for this is not even entirely correct. A turner who loves his machine will never use any abrasives on it. But my machine is already old and not accurate; before me, many generations of students from some vocational school worked on it.
A couple of black dots are visible in the picture - these are sandpits - grains of sand that got into the briar from the ground. These sandpits wear off, but even if they hit the surface of the tube, they are quite acceptable. Smooth tubes without sand pits are sold at a higher price.
First I sharpen the curves of the bowl only on four sides.
Then I roughly draw out the entire form.
If you wet the workpiece, the grains are visible - the natural pattern of the briar. Later I will make these grains contrast with successive sanding and coloring.
The stammel was sanded a little more with coarse sandpaper (150 grit), and a piece of ebonite was cut off for the mouthpiece.
The mouthpiece will be slightly curved, but first it is made straight. Ebonite bends easily when heated, then hardens. But that's later.
On a lathe I turn out the trunnion - the tenon of the mouthpiece to connect with the stammel - the wooden part. The trunnion has the exact diameter to fit snugly in the mortise without getting stuck. And the length is precisely adjusted to the depth of the mortise, so that there is no cavity inside the assembled pipe. To be completely precise, the length of the trunnion is still slightly less than the depth of the mortise, by approximately 0.2 mm. This is necessary because thermal expansion so that a gap does not form in the warm tube.
The mouthpiece channel is drilled with three drills: first a little 3.8 mm, then 2.5 almost to the end, then 1.5 mm towards the mouthpiece side.
Then I bore out the mouthpiece slit. The following tools are used for this:
The Dremel drill attachment is needed to sketch out the direction of the gap. Most factory manufacturers and some craftsmen (mostly Italians) stop there. But if you do everything wisely, the slot needs to be bored out with a deep cone deep into the mouthpiece. To do this, I use a piece of an electric jigsaw file.
The third tool is called a cone rimmer. This is a triangular file with a ground notch. In a wide area, the cross-section fits into a circle with a diameter of 4 mm - just under the diameter of the stemmel channel. By rotating this rimmer in the channel, I remove the “steps” between the drills with different drills. The result is a smooth narrowing from 4mm at the entrance to 1.5mm at the mouthpiece. Again, many manufacturers omit this step, and these steps accumulate condensation from the smoke.
I then roughly sharpen the shape of the mouthpiece with the same Velcro sanding disc. Further - only hand tool: files and sandpapers.
This photo shows a rough outline of the shape of the mouthpiece. I do this with a flat file.
I worked a little more with a file, and then - 150 grit sandpaper on a block like this. I use different blocks: round, rectangular, complex profiles. It will not be possible to grind on your fingers, at least because of the different densities of the materials: briar will fail, mammoth and ebonite will bulge.
I sharpened it some more.
I reached 240 grit. Got it wet. The grains are visible.
The channels of the stem and mouthpiece were sanded with sandpaper on a wooden skewer. On the mouthpiece side - skins folded into a sharp corner. I grind the Stammel channel to 320 grit - there is no need further. The only task is to get rid of drill marks that make cleaning difficult. I not only grind the mouthpiece channel to 800 grit, but also polish it with paste on a long brush (visible behind the tube).
Then I heat up the mouthpiece construction hairdryer and I bend it. Then I cool it cold water. While there was no hairdryer, I used a simple candle. A hairdryer is more convenient only because it is impossible to accidentally set fire to ebonite.
Sanded with 320 grit sandpaper. I drew the final shape of the mouthpiece. I make the mouthpiece physiological, like a boxing mouthguard.
Starting with 320 grit I color the tube between sandpapers. I'm using black now water stain. After painting, I wash off the remaining stain with a damp cloth.
Here the black painted tube is sanded to 400 grit. As you can see, part of the stain that got on the more porous fibers was absorbed a little deeper and remained after sanding. This is how the contrast of grains appears.
The procedure was repeated with 500 and 600 grit sandpaper.
I apply the main color. This is already an alcohol-soluble stain. Again, the excess stain is washed off with a damp cloth so that the tube does not stain your hands.
I polish the tube with paste polishing wheel. The polished mouthpiece shows small grinding marks - I regrind it, bring it to 1500 grit, and polish it again.
I sand off stain stains in the tobacco chamber with sandpaper on a stick like this. I use 150 grit coarse sandpaper. Some craftsmen polish the camera into a mirror, but I think this is not only unnecessary, but also harmful. Soot deposits faster on the rough surface of the chamber.
I mark the tube with stamps. His name is A. Bondarev. Grading A-B-C, A is the highest. And the date of manufacture, in this case 2013-09-13. Traditionally, craftsmen use the Latin alphabet for stamps, but I prefer native Russian letters. Perhaps I will have to temper my patriotism when I enter foreign markets, but for now my pipes are sold only in Russia and the CIS.
I apply carnauba wax to the finished tube, a natural substance that adds gloss to, for example, M&Ms candies. In fact, this is just pre-sale preparation, since the carnauba will wear off over time. I use the same cotton pad to apply the carnauba as I use for buffing.
All that remains is to sew the leather bag, and the tube is ready. There is a drop of black stain left in the chamber - no problem. Light up. I have erased most of the splashes and can no longer rub without distorting the geometry of the camera.
To make your own smoking pipe, you will need materials and some tools. Be prepared right away that making a pipe with your own hands will cost you more than buying a ready-made one. And the quality of the first copies is unlikely to be high. But smoking a homemade pipe is much tastier :)
First you need to understand the structure of the smoking pipe:
In this article we will look at the process of making a smoking pipe with different sets tool.
1. There is no tool at all
In this case, drilling the briar yourself and making a mouthpiece is out of the question. We will use a pre-drilled hobby block and a pre-made acrylic mouthpiece. Both can be bought, for example, on pipeshop.ru. True, hobby blocks are not always available there. You can also search for hobby blocks on eBay.
Hobby block
The diameter of the trunnion (the tenon of the mouthpiece) and the mortise (the hole for the trunnion) must be compatible, therefore it is advisable to buy the mouthpiece and the hobby block from the same seller.
You will still have to buy some minimum tool. Namely - a file and several sheets of sandpaper from the coarsest to 1000 grit.
You will have to sharpen the shape of the tube with a file. Be prepared for the fact that this will take a lot of time. You can roughly cut off the excess material with a hacksaw, but then, in addition to the hacksaw, you will also have to buy a vice.
Drilling machine and band saw
These machines, even the simplest ones, will greatly simplify the work and make it possible to make a tube with your own hands from start to finish, without using ready-made components. I started with just such a kit. I bought them used for only 5,000 rubles in total. You'll probably have to look for a band saw, but there are plenty of drill bits on sale. For example, a Corvette 41 drill and a Corvette 31 saw, or any similar ones, are suitable (most machines are made at the same factories in China, and differ only in brand and color).
You can buy briar and ebonite in small quantities. You also need to buy a Teflon trunnion (aka Tenon). The parcel will take about a month to arrive in Russia. You can save money and find domestic ebonite: the mouthpiece will not be as beautiful, but it will be much cheaper.
You will need drills: 3-4 mm for the smoke channel, 7-10 mm for the mortise - 0.1 mm less than the diameter of the purchased trunnion. The first drill may need an extended one - they are not sold in every store. I'll have to look for it. Plus, you need to resharpen an 18-22mm feather drill to a parabolic shape, then sharpen it. To do this you will need any, even the simplest grinder(Just grindstone on the motor), or someone who has one.
You will also need a Forstner drill. It is also sold as a "drill for furniture hinges". Don't skimp, buy Bosch - it's important tool, it must be of high quality.
Before drilling the briar, the block must be marked. Draw the pipe on paper, then transfer the final sketch to the block, draw the axes of the tobacco chamber, smoke channel and mortise. Measure the depth of each hole and wrap the drill bits at the desired depth with electrical tape to prevent drilling too deep. It is advisable to draw axes on all sides of the block.
S. E. Thile
Use a band saw to cut some of the briar so that the edge is perpendicular to the axis of the smoke channel. If the drill drops to inclined surface, it may move out.
Place the marked block in the vice of a drilling machine so that the tip of the drill hits the drilling point. Check the direction of the drill with the axes drawn on the block on all sides. Remove the regular drill, install a Forstner drill, and use it to level the perpendicular surface. Then put the regular smoke duct drill back in. All this without removing the workpiece from the vice.
Drill at low speeds, removing the drill from the briar from time to time. Otherwise the briar will start to burn.
Underdrill the smoke channel a little, leaving at least a couple of millimeters from the calculated depth. After all, later, when you drill the tobacco chamber, you may miss a little.
Drill out the mortise to the required depth. If the mortise axis does not coincide with the axis of the smoke channel, first correct the block with a vice. Remove the block from the vice, making sure everything is drilled correctly. Insert the drill into the channel, look from all sides to see if it has gone to the side. If it took a little, it doesn’t matter, redraw the axes and slightly change the shape of the planned tube. Just remember to reapply the tape on the drill bit if the depth of the chamber has changed. Check whether the trunnion fits tightly in the mortise.
Grind off the edge of the mortise with a countersink. It is better to do this manually - you can remove too much with a machine.
When you install the block for drilling the tobacco chamber, it is better to install a thin drill bit (for the smoke channel) in the chuck. It is easier to set the drilling axis using it. And only then, when the block is installed in the vice as it should be, change the drill to a sharpened point drill.
Drill the tobacco chamber to the desired depth. Remove the block from the vice. If the smoke channel does not reach the bottom of the tobacco chamber, drill it manually. It is quite possible to drill a couple of millimeters with your hands, cutting the drill with pressure. Just make sure that it is the channel that is not drilled to the bottom of the chamber, and not vice versa.
Making a mouthpiece
Use a band saw to cut a piece of ebonite to the required length. Set it upright in the drill press and don't remove it until you're done. Use a Forstner drill to make a smooth, perpendicular surface. Then drill a hole for the Teflon pin of the required depth and clean it from dust.
Mix epoxy glue (Poxipol is suitable), pour a little onto the bottom of the hole for the trunnion, and spread it onto the glued part of the trunnion. Insert the pin and press it with a clamp without fanaticism. All this without removing the workpiece from the machine. Wipe off excess epoxy while it is still wet.
Wait until the epoxy hardens completely. This takes longer than what is written on the package. You can check whether enough has passed by looking at the glue residue where you mixed it. Poke around, if the epoxy has hardened into stone there, it means it’s in the workpiece too.
Remove the clamp and start drilling the smoke channel in the mouthpiece. To do this, you will need drills of different diameters, from the one you used to drill the channel in the Stammel, to 1.5 mm. The channel should be conical, so drill it successively deeper and deeper with thinner drills. The thinnest drill bit should be long enough to reach the end. Drill with reverse side It’s very difficult - you can ruin the workpiece, so it’s better to do everything in one installation.
When you reach the end and make sure that the drill comes out from the back of the workpiece, remove it from the machine.
All that remains is to make the bell of the mouthpiece. To do this, you will need a Dremel attachment - a diamond-coated needle. Ideally, of course, you need to have a Dremel itself, but while you don’t have one, the attachment can be installed in a drilling machine. Having inserted the needle into the channel from the side of the mouthpiece, you need to carefully rock the workpiece until a gap of the required width is formed.
Congratulations! You already have something to smoke :)
But so far it doesn’t look very aesthetically pleasing. Excess briar must be cut off with a band saw, then the briar and ebonite must be sharpened with a file for a long, long time. Try not to wear off the mouthpiece - leave a little “meat” there. The mouthpiece will need to be sharpened later with a flat file.
Grinding and polishing the tube
When the shape of the tube along with the mouthpiece is already ready, you can move on to finishing. For sanding, use sandpaper ranging from 100 grit to 1000 grit.
To polish, you need to buy a cotton polishing disc - this is a disc made of several dozen layers of cotton fabric stitched with thread. Such a disk must be installed in a drilling machine, lubricated with polishing paste, and the tube carefully brought to it. The disc and paste can be bought in special stores for jewelers. You should not use GOI paste - it will color the tube green color. There are more modern pastes.
Grinding and polishing of channels
To polish the smoke channel both in the stem and in the mouthpiece, it is most convenient to use wooden kebab skewers. You need to stick sandpaper of different grain sizes on them. The smallest - 500 grit - this will be enough.
You can polish the canal with paste only in the mouthpiece. In a stammel, this paste would be absorbed into the briar. You need to lubricate the cord with the paste, put the mouthpiece on it, and move it back and forth.
Painting a smoking pipe
To give the tube color, stains are used. Alcohol ones are best - they dry faster. You can use water ones. Under no circumstances should they be “non-aqueous” - these are toxic chemicals that have no place in the tube. The stain is usually applied before polishing. To make the pattern more contrasting, stain is applied after each stage of sanding with sandpaper. Part of the stain, in this case, is absorbed deeper because it falls on fibers of a different density. Also, stains are often used at different stages different color to make the briar pattern even more contrasting.
3. Lathe and band saw
S. E. Thile
The work is greatly simplified if you have lathe. He will make it possible to make longer mouthpieces without being limited by the length of the drill, since you can drill on both sides. He will ask you to make the mouthpiece solid without glue, turning the trunnion from the same piece of ebonite. It will allow you to turn a cylindrical shank, for example, for Billiards. Otherwise, the process is similar to making a tube using a drilling machine.
Master classes
Equipment for making smoking pipes with your own hands
To make smoking pipes, it is very desirable (but not necessary) to have the following set of equipment.
Now many smokers are beginning to think about their health, many are quitting this habit, while others are switching from cigarettes to regular tobacco, which contains much less impurities. However, it requires a tube. The retail chain offers them wide choose, but really high-quality copies are very expensive. And now we will discuss how to make a smoking pipe yourself.
Material for making a smoking pipe
Masters make smoking pipes from briar. It is a growth at the root of a tree called heather. It is ideal for creating such a specific product. After all, heather grows in the rocky soil of the Mediterranean climate, and briar absorbs moisture and minerals, which subsequently give everything necessary qualities wood, which is so valued by the craftsmen who make smoking pipes from it.
Local tree species to create a smoking pipe
However, this tree does not grow in our area, and if you buy it, it will not be cheap. You can do it yourself, materials for which can easily be found in local gardens. Fruit trees with dense wood are suitable for making a pipe: apple, pear, plum. But it is best to choose cherry; its fibers are the densest of the listed species, so it will not burn out for a long time. All the others are also good, but they char a little faster. It is advisable to use the root part for harvesting, but branch or stem material is suitable. Fruit trees They have a great flavor when smoked. Some people like the taste of cherry, others like apple, it all depends on your own preferences. This is also why it is better to make a smoking pipe with your own hands.
Preparation of material
Having decided on the type of wood, you also need to find out how to properly dry a suitable piece. You cannot cut a living branch or part of a root and immediately make a tube out of it. The cuts on the material are painted over or sealed so that moisture cannot quickly evaporate through them. It should gradually come out through the bark, which in no case should be removed immediately. And so the tree should lie until next year- then the fibers will gradually dry out, and there will be no cracks in their structure. And only after this time will it be possible to remove the bark and grind out the shape of the smoking pipe.
You can also make a smoking pipe from a dried log. To do this, you need to cut the workpiece from its center. Of course, if it was in a dry place. The extreme places with cracks are cut off, after which there is solid wood that has no flaws. After this, the bark is removed and cut out right size blanks, but with a margin of five centimeters. Then the wood is put aside for a week, because it must completely dry out, after which microcracks may well appear. If you immediately start grinding out the shape of the smoking pipe, then the revealed flaws will ruin everything. And after a week, even if small cracks open, they will be in the remaining stock, and after cutting it off there will be an ideal surface for carving.
Manufacturing process
To begin, cut out a simple angular blank resembling a square or diamond. Its surface must be sanded in order to clearly see the structure of the wood and determine whether there are any defects on it. If everything is good, we mark the future shape in more detail so that we know where the smoking chamber will be, and where the shank is - this is the part where the mouthpiece is attached. You need to mark all the details and holes with a pencil. It is also worth drawing directions to make it easier to maintain angles when drilling.
When making smoking pipes with their own hands, craftsmen first drill a hole for the chamber into which tobacco will be poured. It's worth doing this first thin drill, and then pick up everything thicker until the hole becomes required diameter. But you shouldn’t immediately bring it to the final size; you need to leave an allowance of a few millimeters so that you can sand it later sandpaper. After all, the drill leaves an uneven surface, but it should be smooth.
After this, a smoke channel hole is drilled on the side in the place where the chibouk is intended. This must be done carefully, because making smoking pipes with your own hands is a very precise and labor-intensive process. The hole for smoke exhaust must be strictly at the bottom of the tobacco chamber. This is very important point, because if you make it a little higher, the tobacco inside will not burn out completely, which can lead to souring, and this will worsen the taste of the pipe and smoke. This channel can be from 3 to 4 mm. The wider it is, the drier the tube will be. By the way, it is better to equip it with a filter to prevent ash from getting into the middle. In addition, the wide smoke channel makes it easy to clean the pipe with a brush. Once the holes are ready and accurately connected, you can begin to create the external shape.
Of course, it is better to make smoking pipes with your own hands on a machine; it will be much easier and faster. But if you don’t have such equipment, you can still make a good copy by hand.
Next (when working on a machine) you need to make circles that are possible; all other parts are cut out by hand with a well-sharpened cutter. It is important to make the edge of the motiz narrower than the entire width of the shank. This is necessary so that the mouthpiece can be put on and the two parts are on the same plane. After this, the surface is sanded outside and inside with sandpaper. First, the large one removes all the bumps left by the knife, and then the fine one removes scratches from a flat surface. However, you can leave the outer parts unprocessed - here everything is done to the taste of the master.
Choosing a mouthpiece material
We continue to talk about how to make a smoking pipe, and now we will create a mouthpiece. It can be made of ebonite or acrylic. The first material is softer, but polishing remains on it for a very short time. It is better to choose it for those who hold the pipe in their teeth when smoking. Acrylic is harder and more durable, and therefore it is suitable for holding the product in your hands during the process.
Manufacturing process
You need to take a stick of ebonite or acrylic with a length of 10 to 15 cm. To ensure that the smoke has time to cool when smoking, make your own smoking pipes no shorter than 10 cm. Taking this into account, we choose the size of the mouthpiece. A hole is made in it along the entire length with a drill, the diameter of which is 3 mm. They start from the part where there will be a connection with the chibouk. After this, the hole is expanded by half the length to the diameter of the smoke channel. Then this step that forms needs to be smoothed out. To do this, you need to cut a triangular tip on a wire with a diameter of 4 mm. It needs to be pushed in all the way and carefully turned several times.
After this, the channel is sanded using a thin wire with sandpaper glued to it. The place where the mouthpiece will be is expanded horizontally to create an oval of 5-6 mm. This will make it easier for the smoker to absorb the smoke. On the other hand, the hole in the mouthpiece is widened so that it fits tightly onto the shank, but without much effort.
External molding of the mouthpiece
Mouthpieces, like smoking pipes, are processed with your own hands. You can grind it on a machine or use improvised tools. The form is also arbitrary. After this, you need to sand the surface first with fine sandpaper, and then with felt with GOI paste. If you make an ebonite mouthpiece, you can bend it and give it a different shape. To do this, it is heated over gas stove or a candle and then make a bend.
Do-it-yourself wooden smoking pipes can be waxed or etched - this way their surface will look elite, and will be much clearer and, of course, this is an excellent protection for the surface of the wood.
Tube etching
An excellent mordant can be potassium dichromium, ground in water, and after the reaction with the release of gases stops, this indicates that the mixture is ready for etching the wood. The more concentrated it is, the richer the color and contrast of the wood fiber pattern. The tube is immersed in the composition until it reaches the desired tone. You can store this mordant as long as you like in an airtight glass container.
Waxing
There is a great and simple way. Wax required. 100 g of it needs to be finely chopped, then add mastic (12 g), instead of it you can crushed rosin (25 g). The selected mixture is put on fire until everything becomes liquid. Then remove it from it and immediately pour in 50 g of warm turpentine. After this, the mixture must be thoroughly stirred and poured into the required container. The composition is stored in it until it is needed to be used. Take the mixture, apply it to wool or cotton fabric and thoroughly rub it into the wood.
Cleaning a smoking pipe
This should be done when the tube has completely cooled down. You must carefully disconnect the mouthpiece by unscrewing it clockwise. If you pull it out using extraordinary force, you can damage both parts of the tube. The mouthpiece is cleaned with special brushes, starting from the side of the mouthpiece. It is better to have several of them for a more convenient process.
It is necessary to clean the chibouk after each smoking session. The brush is started from the side where the mouthpiece was. After everything is cleaned, the brush is left inside the pipe until it is time to fill the pipe with tobacco. Cleaning of the product is completed by wiping all its external surfaces. The tube is then purged to remove any carbon or debris that may have remained inside.
For general cleaning of the tube, wax, alcohol, and various other liquids are used; it is carried out as it becomes dirty. And only the owner himself knows when easy maintenance lacks.
Nowadays a pipe is more of a decorative element; it is rarely smoked because it needs to be looked after. Now they are like fine wine, which is only savored from time to time. There are also many accessories for such a delicacy (stands for smoking pipes, for example), which can be different forms and sizes.
How do the most expensive and collectible pipes differ from ordinary ones?
First of all this perfect material- briar In the most expensive collectible pieces, the fibers of this wonderful tree are visible, woven randomly, but the master presents them as if they were grown specifically for this smoking pipe. They, like rays that envelop the smoking chamber, pass into the chibouk. Such a piece of art as a collectible smoking pipe always receives rave reviews not only from knowledgeable people, but also from ordinary people. After all, a masterpiece always has a special aura and, of course, appearance. And looking at it, you cannot catch yourself thinking that you can change its shape or appearance. This is precisely where the master’s talent lies.