Making truly high-quality pipes is a painstaking process that involves many steps. Today's story is about the making of pipes by master Alexander Bondarev.
Like many masters, Alexander is self-taught: he looked at other people’s work, noticed something, tried to do something himself, improved something and it took root in his work. I won't go into technical details, I will not dwell in detail on any individual processes. This is all on Alexander’s own blog; he talks in detail about the processes and pitfalls and does it knowledgeably and with pictures.
Well, I'll walk through common places, I’ll sketch, so to speak, a sketch.
Pipes are made from many materials, from clay and stone to corncob and pumpkin. Although, traditional material It still counts as a tree. There are many options here too: cherry, pear, beech, but the best pipes are made from briar. Briar pipes are also called heather pipes.
Briar is a growth in the rhizome of heather, which grows in difficult conditions stony soil of the Mediterranean. This growth serves the tree to accumulate water, and along with the water it absorbs minerals, becoming very durable and fire-resistant. It is these properties that make briar an ideal material for pipes.
Briar is harvested specifically for pipe makers. It is cleaned, washed, dried. Proper drying sets the correct properties of wood and its taste. If you dry it incorrectly, cracks will appear, and if you don’t dry it enough, the pipe will not have a good taste. But the latter can be corrected; briar can also ripen in the form of a finished product.
The workpiece is fastened in the machine twice. The first time is the chibouk (this is what meets the mouthpiece), and the second is the bowl itself with the tobacco chamber. Moreover, if a ring is used on the pipe to decorate the junction with the mouthpiece, and this is most often used in good pipes, then its installation takes place directly on the machine, followed by drilling out the mortise, the place where the mouthpiece fits. If you place the ring separately, you will get microscopic cracks at the joints, and this is unacceptable.
Rings are most often made from different varieties wood, horn, bone or precious metals. For example, products made from natural horn and ivory cannot be exported to the USA; they protect nature there. So we have to replace these parts with acrylic.
Alexander has a reason to be proud: a one and a half kilogram “piece” of mammoth ivory. Its owner lived a long time ago on the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, then died, and then the horn was found by Soviet scientists. And then Alexander found the scientists :)
We continue the rough processing of the tube blank. The excess is mercilessly cut off. No occupational health or safety :)
Rough grinding on a wheel. At the upper end of the chibouk you can see that same decorative ring, although not from the same mammoth, but from boxwood.
Here comes an unpleasant surprise. A small cavity in solid wood spoils the whole picture. Most likely, the cavity will not be able to be ground off and this tube will no longer become smooth, but will be rusticated. It's more difficult with cracks. When they are detected, the workpiece is most often discarded. But this is valuable wood material, mammoth or bone, and several hours of work.
Also, blanks with cavities inside the tobacco chamber remain without a future. In principle, if the cavity is small, then after several months of smoking you will not find it, but you cannot sell such a pipe, the reputation of the master will suffer.
Very important stage— drilling the smoke channel. First, the channel is drilled to the point where it meets the tobacco chamber, and then the chamber is selected. Moreover, the channel should exit exactly at the bottom of the chamber. If the bottom of the chamber is lower than the outlet of the channel, the pipe will not be smoked to the end, which will lead to stagnation of the resin and an unpleasant taste and smell.
About five hours have passed since the start of work, and we have only completed the blank. If they cut spoons, they would call them bastards. Then the creative process of shaping begins. This is done by hand and the time taken depends greatly on the shape of the tube. On average, one tube takes three to four full working days.
We will not abuse the host's hospitality, so we will return to the already finished pipe.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. Mouthpieces. They are also made from various materials, but now ebonite or acrylic is considered traditional. Alexander uses warm lamp ebonite. A hole is drilled in the cylinder for the channel and a trunnion, which will fit into the wooden part of the tube. There, too, an accuracy of up to 0.2 millimeters per thermal gap is required.
After grinding, the tube is treated with ordinary stains, sanded again, if necessary, treated with stains again and sanded again.
Tubes are not friendly with varnishes, only polishing.
By alternating sanding with painting, you can achieve a spectacular pattern of wood fibers and grains.
The final touch is the master's stamp.
Each pipe is marked with the name of the master, the date of birth of the pipe and its quality. Each pipe maker has his own scale and evaluates pipes at his own discretion.
Each tube comes with a leather case. It is sewn right there with the same hands.
And here are the tubes. I prefer smooth, rounded ones, while others may prefer rusticated ones. There are actually ones that look like stumps :)
“No, don’t take this off, these are my working tubes and in general, there’s a mess here and there’s no need to do that” :) A master can afford such a creative mess. There are no pipes made for oneself; rather, these are pipes with minor defects identified in the final stages. Such a defect does not affect any properties other than aesthetic indicators, but this cannot be given to the customer.
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 has always been of interest to others: friends asked me to try it, and in public places(for example, in cafes and bars, before 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 (a lot);
- 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
Separate a piece of wood 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.
Smoking tobacco is very popular, despite all the warnings from doctors. There are many different ways to do this, but the pipe is especially popular. This item became famous around 1493, after the discovery of America by Columbus. The first Indian pipes were shaped like the letter “U”. The smoke from the tobacco burning in them was drawn through the nostrils.
A little about the device
Modern beautiful,carved smoking pipeshave a completely different, long-established structure. It has three main parts:
bowl;
chibouk;
mouthpiece.
There is a tobacco chamber in the bowl where combustion occurs. Through a small hole in the base of this chamber, the smoke goes into a special channel (chimney), which passes through the chibouk. Then it goes into the mouthpiece connected to it and from there into the smoker’s mouth. Tubes come in many different shapes and are made from different materials and even have some variations in their design.
What is the secret of rich taste
What is so attractive about smoking a pipe? The thing is that tobacco, burning in it, acquires a stronger taste, and accordingly, the smoker experiences a bright and rich flavor range. But for it to open completely, the tube must not only be made of the required material, but also have a specific shape. All this may seem very complicated at first glance. In fact, it is quite possible to acquirehomemade smoking pipe. It will definitely be more pleasant to use this than the highest quality and most expensive store-bought product.
Let's get started: choosing a model
Before you begin, you need to decide on the design of the tube. One important point here is whether it will be with or without a filter. The first option provides for the presence of a special chamber in the product where a special smoke purifier will be placed. It is made from paper, activated carbon, balsa wood and other materials. A good filter does not affect the taste of tobacco, but only reduces the amount harmful substances in smoke, cools it and absorbs moisture from it. All this, of course, is good, but you will need to not only make a compartment in the tube for such a purifier, but also regularly change used filters. There is a simpler method (it is used in inexpensive tubes). An evaporator (a small metal cylinder with a groove for smoke to flow through it) is inserted into the connection between the pipe and the mouthpiece. It plays the role of both a cooler and a resin collector. Its efficiency, of course, is small compared to a filter, buthomemade smoking pipeIt may well be possible to get by only with the presence of an evaporator.
About the tool
After everything is decided with the device of the tube, you need to take care of the instrument. Minimum Required next:
file;
sandpaper;
any drilling device;
band-saw;
set of chisels (forcarved smoking pipe)
pencil;
brush.
Blanks
Next you need to take care of the blanks for the tube. The Internet is full of sites where you can order everything you need, the only question is the price and delivery costs. By and large, you only need to purchase a piece of briar for making a stammel (a bowl together with a shank) and a small (about 10 cm long) cylinder of ebonite with a diameter of 1.0 - 1.5 cm for turning a mouthpiece. It’s better not to even try to take these two things somewhere, but only in special stores or from trusted online suppliers. Of course, you can also worry about a decorative ring for the pipe or other similar decorative elements, but for the first homemade product this is all completely unnecessary.
Manufacturing technology
Now, finally, let's considerhow to make a smoking pipeyourself. First, you need to use a file to give the briar the shape of the future stummel. Its outline is drawn on the tree in advance, so it won’t be that difficult to do. The main thing is not to forget that the total length of the tube should be at least 10-15 centimeters.
Giving briar the required form, proceed to drilling the tobacco chamber, the hole for the trunnion (the part of the mouthpiece inserted into the shank) and the smoke channel. This must be done carefully, at very low speeds and with regular removal of the drill from the workpiece. Otherwise, it will simply start to burn, and this should not be allowed. It is better to drill the smoke channel first and not all the way, so as not to miss when drilling the tobacco chamber. It is better to make a hole for the trunnion small size(as far as the workpiece allows) in order to prevent chips and cracks on the walls of the cylinder resulting from this process. Then they take up chisels, if donecarved smoking pipe, and at the end everything is finally processed with sandpaper.
We also make an ebonite mouthpiece using a file. This material is easy to process. The main difficulties lie in drilling a smoke channel in it and adjusting the neck of the mouthpiece to the diameter seat in a chibouk. The connection should be tight and at the same time easy to separate with little effort. It is important to know that the mouthpiece is inserted and removed only in a circular motion, and is screwed in only clockwise, and unscrewed, on the contrary, counterclockwise. The final shape of the mouthpiece will be determined only by the imagination of the master.
Even if something doesn’t work out the first time (and this most likely will happen), then don’t despair. It is only through work that one gains invaluable experience. Taking into account the mistakes of past attempts, it will be much easier to achieve mastery and ultimately make a first-class pipe for yourself.
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Smoking pipes have been around for ages. This is a very popular item produced in different styles: From "Player" to "Church Guardian". How to do it yourself 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 drill it out lathe from 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 guide we will cut two identical shapes from wood and use a Dremel to cut out inner part, and then glue the two halves together.
Step 1: Cut out the tube
Print PDF file on a sheet of A4 size paper. Cut out the stencil and draw it twice on a 2 cm thick piece of wood. When you draw the outline of your homemade smoking pipe, it is very important to make sure that the barrel is parallel to the grain of the wood.
If you draw it perpendicular to the grain, the tube will be very fragile and will probably break. Next, cut out two shapes. For this I used band saw, but you can use a jigsaw or whatever you have on hand. Files
Step 2: Drill the bowl
You will need a 2cm drill, drilling machine (regular drill will also work, but it may not turn out so neatly), as well as a clamp. Align the two halves and pinch them at the bottom. Then draw a straight line from the top right corner to the bottom left. Draw another line from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Where both lines intersect and you need to drill a hole. Place a 2cm drill bit into the drill press and drill so that the tip of the bit goes straight into the center of the bowl. Go down 2.5 cm and stop there.
Step 3: Create a Duct
I have attached a picture for this step - this is a diagram of the ductwork that you will cut out. Copy it onto the tube halves so that when you fold them in half, the duct pattern will be on the inside. Use a Dremel to cut out the duct, but don't make the groove too deep. Once you are done with the cutting, line up the two halves of your tube so that the air duct is on the inside. Place your lips on the end of the barrel and blow. If the air flows easily, then you are ready to move on to the next step. If not, keep cutting until you can blow air through the barrel.
Step 4: Glue the halves together
Get some strong wood glue and put some in the places where you didn't cut anything and put a very small amount of glue on the trunk because when you join the two halves together the glue will want to seep into the duct and block it.
Press the two halves together or place them in a vice for a few hours. Once the glue is completely dry, remove the tube from the vice and blow hard into it. If you were able to do this, then you are ready to move on. If not, place the tip of a flat-head screwdriver on the seam where the tube halves meet and tap the screwdriver with a hammer to separate it into pieces. Sand off all the glue and cut the duct a little deeper, then try to glue the halves back together.
Step 5: Cutting out the trunk
You can use a hacksaw or band saw for this step. I chose a hacksaw because I could control it better. Mark a line on each side of the trunk, marking what you want to cut. Make sure the barrel you blow into expands at the end. The wider end will be easier to fit in your mouth. Place the tube in a vise and tighten it from the bottom. Carefully cut out each line you drew.
Step 6: Sand the barrel
Use a Dremel to cut the corners of the trunk. Continue cutting the stem until you think it looks good. Use 80 grit sandpaper and lightly sand the barrel. Next, take 150-grit sandpaper and go over the barrel again. Continue increasing the grit until you reach 500 grit.
Step 7: Cut and Sand the Bowl Section
I held the tobacco pipe in a vise and cut off all the corners of the bowl with a hacksaw. Be very careful not to cut off too much. Once all the corners are cut, take 80 grit sandpaper and sand the entire bowl. You can sand by hand, but it will take a very long time, so I recommend using proper power tools. Once I was done with the 80 grit sandpaper, I decided to sand by hand and took a piece of 150 grit sandpaper. Raise the grit as you did when sanding the barrel.
Step 8: Finishing the finishing touches
I used wood stain to give my pipe some character. But don't paint it if you plan to smoke, because when you light the pipe it will catch fire. Next I coated it with varnish. Once again, if you are going to smoke from this pipe, do not use varnish, stain, etc. I only used varnish because I don't intend to smoke.
If you're looking for a finish that won't catch fire, try mineral oil. Mineral oil is a safe product and can be used to finish smoking pipes. Apply a little mineral oil to a piece of 1500 grit sandpaper and run the sandpaper over the tube. Once the entire tube is sanded, polish it with a rag or paper towel. Now everything is ready! Enjoy your new handset.
