Smoking pipes have been around for ages. This is a very popular item and comes in a variety of styles from Player to Church Guardian. How to make your own smoking pipe?
I don't smoke, so I just made it for fun. There are many ways to make a smoking pipe with your own hands. You can lathe it out of the halves and then join them together, you can cut it out of wood and then drill a channel from the leg to the other end. But in this simple step-by-step tutorial, we'll cut two identical shapes out of wood and use a Dremel to carve out the inside, then glue the two halves together.
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 make your own smoking pipes, the 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 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.
Story
The production of this type of weapon has a thousand-year history.
Shooting blowpipes were invented by residents of regions where there was no wood suitable for creating high-quality bows. Primitive forms of blowguns are still used to this day by the indigenous peoples of South India, Polynesia, Brazil, Peru, and other southern countries as a means of hunting small animals. It is here that a wide variety of poisonous plants and amphibians (frogs, lizards) are found, from which it is possible to extract toxic substances for impregnation of darts. The most compact and highly effective version of the blowpipe is the 50-centimeter weapon of African aborigines. It uses long darts that can hit birds and small mammals at a distance of more than 20 meters.
A more advanced option is the blowpipe of the Indians who inhabited the shores of the Amazon. The traditional weapon of the local peoples is a 2.5-meter cylinder with a through hole. A modified version is a hollow tree trunk into which a smaller cylinder is placed. When hitting the end of the latter, excess pressure is created in the barrel, which leads to the dart flying over a long distance.
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 the required size of the workpiece is cut out, 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. First, you should do this with a thin drill, and then select a thicker one until the hole reaches the desired diameter. But you shouldn’t immediately bring it to the final size; you need to leave an allowance of a few millimeters and then sand it with 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 a very important point, because if you make it a little higher, the tobacco inside will not burn completely, which can lead to souring, and this will worsen the taste of the pipe and the 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.
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. True, hobby blocks are not always available there. You can also search for hobby blocks on eBay.
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.
Next, when the mold is ready, move on to the “grinding and polishing” section.
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.
Don't forget about care
A mouthpiece, especially one made with your own hands, is a fashionable and original accessory that adds a special zest and chic to the smoking process. But in order for such a device to last as long as possible, you should not forget about the rules of proper care for it. Indeed, during the operation of such a device, sooty and resinous compounds gradually settle and accumulate on its walls.
Their excessive accumulation can lead to an unpleasant bitterness when smoking. You can clean a mouthpiece (including one you made yourself) using a special care product. After use (after approximately 10–12 cigarettes smoked), the smoking accessory should be cleaned as deeply as possible . For these purposes, you can also use ready-made smoking pipe care products.
For the cleaning process you will also need special brushes. They are sold in smoking shops (you can choose brushes based on the diameter of the hole in your mouthpiece). When cleaning, make sure that the smoking accessory is thoroughly cleaned on both sides. The used brush can be thrown away (if it is disposable) or washed with warm running water.
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 a gas stove or candle and then bent.
Do-it-yourself wooden smoking pipes can be waxed or etched - this way their surface will look elite, and the wood pattern will be much clearer and, of course, this is an excellent protection for the wood surface.
Pipe made from a purchased blank and mouthpiece
Making a pipe from a so-called hobby block and a purchased mouthpiece is one of the convenient and beautiful options: you don’t need to worry about drilling out the tobacco chamber and smoke channel, and the resulting product will have a quite presentable appearance. For this you need a minimum of tools: a file for shaping and sandpaper of different grain sizes for sanding. You can decorate the bowl and stem with carvings and cover them with water-based (or alcohol-based) stain. When purchasing a mouthpiece, make sure it fits your hobby block.
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 simple maintenance is not enough.
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 come in different shapes and sizes.
How to choose an ashtray for your pipe?
The branded smoking set is thought out and adapted for comfortable and constant use. An ashtray is not just a container for tobacco residues, but also a platform for storing and servicing a smoking device.
The design includes:
- Basic platform. This is the base of the ashtray, made of stone or wood and ensuring the stability of the product on the surface. Branded ashtrays are equipped with a high stand, which makes the structure heavier and helps fix part of the smoking pipe.
- Smoking pipe cradle. This is a separate part that is usually located on the side. Thanks to this, you can conveniently place the tube on a stemmel or bowl and not worry about the device flying off or falling somewhere. The advantage of the kits is that the cradle is initially cut to the size and height of the bowl, which guarantees the stability of the tube.
- Niches for tobacco. This is a container where tobacco is shaken off. The niches are made deep around the cork core. Therefore, when hitting the insert, the tobacco does not fly out of the ashtray and remains exclusively inside.
- Sides and cover. The set can be equipped with enlarged end sides, which protects the ashtray from the wind and careless swings of the hands, when tobacco can fly away to the sides. For more convenient use, tube accessory kits often come with covers. This is a great addition that will protect the room from the smell of old tobacco mixture.
How do the most expensive and collectible pipes differ from ordinary ones?
First of all, it is an ideal 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 an object of art as a collectible smoking pipe always receives enthusiastic 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.
