Something a little bit different....Pipes!

Tim enjoying his new pipe!

My good friend Tim James who both made and maintains my website, www.woodturned-treats.co.uk , asked if I could make him a new pipe as he had dropped and broken his favourite one. I naturally said, with slight trepedation, 'Errrr well, probably? OK then" , but after watching a few youtube videos on the subject and a little reading to learn the internal layout of bowl and draw hole, I felt more confident.
 Now although the preferred material for pipe bowls are Briars, these are not readily available locally, several other timbers however are suitable for making these, one of which is Olive wood. Unfortunately I didn't have any of that either, but very kindly Nick and Jane Arnull sorted me out with a few pieces to get me going (thanks chaps!).

Contemplating the Universe.....

 The hardest and most important part of the whole process is getting the holes right as the draw hole needs to enter the bowl at the very bottom to ensure the pipe is a 'good smoker' but with being careful and lots of measuring it came out just about right. The top of the bowl was then turned in the chuck and the first part of the stem between centres, this leaves the two ends sticking out from a block and the rest of the shaping is done by carving and sanding. The mouthpiece is simply turned from Indian Rosewood with the oval shape to go in the mouth shaped on the sander. The bowl was finally rusticated with some texturing, finished and buffed and she was ready to go!!
 Tim was most impressed with his new pipe and I spent a few minutes trying it out myself, a bit naughty as I gave up smoking a year ago...............