fun to make "Pipes"

[chipper]

I figured out the secret to making these, I use a hose clamp to keep the bowl shut when I bend the stem. Works really cool.
Loyd Shindelbower
Loveland colorado

 

[blacksmithman64]

:shocked2: Seen the price of terbacky lately!? :haha:

 

[chipper]

Actually yes, sir walter is selling for $3 a tin. About $17 cheaper that an a carton of cigarettes. My buddy is staring to grow it. He's got like an entire section of his garden set aside for tobacco.

Regards

 

[ameling]

Nice pipes. They are a fun project to ... tinker with.

Yeah, bending the bowl is the "fun" part. You
really do need to watch out that you don't
...kink... the bend TOO MUCH. It does need to be
tightened up a little in that bend - so you don't
have too much tobac being drawn up the stem. But
kinked too much cuts off too much of the draw.

I reshaped an older punch/chisel - to form a
"mandrel" in the shape of the inside of the bowls
on my pipes. This helps me roll up and form the
bowl fairly tight and consistent. And I use it
when I bend them. I lightly clamp the stem in my
vice, insert the mandrel, then start
tapping/pulling it until I get the bend angle I
want. Sometimes I stop part way to hammer/true up
the bowl over that mandrel - if it is spreading out
too much. When bent to shape, I then re-hammer the
bowl around that mandrel to true it back up - and
smooth out any "flat" spots from the
hammer/bending.

With the first ones, I worried more about the bowl
spreading out when I was bending it. Now I worry
less - knowing how quickly it can be hammered back
to true. And I worried about colapsing the stem
too much. I even used a metal rod as an inside
mandrel. Tough to get back out! Now I just hammer
slowly and carefully. But DO bend the edges to the
curve you need FIRST - before bending the main
parts of the stem. Once the one side is bent over
the other, it is very hard to get a little extra
curve to the inside edge along that stem. You
almost have to put some small rod "mandrel" inside
to hammer it against.

My final step is to then clamp the stem back in the
vice and use the hacksaw to trim the bowl ends to
the angle I want. Then it's off to the belt sander
to smooth up the edges and outside - especially
along the seam.

And I run a bead of elmer's glue along that seam to
seal it up initially. It dries clear. The seam
will "gunk" up naturally in use - and seal itself
by the time the glue pops off.

I will be talking/guiding people through making
their own sheet iron pipes this fall at the NAVC
conference. (OMG - what did I sign myself up to do?)

Nice pipes. And another fun project to tinker with.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[ameling]

Some more ... imspiration ...

One friend got a long stem pipe from me. He really
"tricked" it out. He took it to his silver
smithing polishing wheel, and buffed it to a mirror
finish. He silver soldered a brass turtle effigy
onto the bowl. And he Blued it! Really snazzy looking!

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[ameling]

Taxes on ALL retail tobacco products went way up
April first! Kind of glad I don't smoke - except
for a couple pipes-full a year.

But you do have to be careful about growing your
own. Many States have regulations on the amount
you can grow for yourself. The regs were put in
place many years ago when people still would plant
a 1/2 up to couple acre patch to make a little
extra money farming. But some States regulate down
to some pretty small square-footage limitations.

And, of course, if you SELL any of it you then run
into all those tax men wanting the government's
share! Just like making your own
beer/wine/whiskey, you can only make so much for
personal use before the tax man steps in.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German Blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. If anything is fun or you enjoy it, those
"do-gooders" want the government to regulate it,
ban it, or tax it.

 

[blacksmithman64]

i got hold of some seeds to plant some backy myself, figger if the marijuana growers don't have to pay taxes, why not me! :rotf: :wink:

 

[pichou]

No tax and no legal issues on sumac leaves, red willow bark... etc... :grin:

 

[chipper]

Really nice work Mike. You can really tell the difference, yours don't have the dents I made. I have one of those mandrels too. I have a mandrel for everything now. I love being a blacksmith. I used to go teary eyed in a tool store now I take down measurements and jot down ideas.
Thanks again for all your help.

 

[blacksmithman64]

Ain't it good to know you can still get "American made tools"? :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: P.S. the guys at Lowes don't like it when you tell 'em..."Nah, I'll go home and forge a good one up myself!" :haha:

 

[shooyer_250]

WOLF, I'm surprised you found someone at Lowes or anywhere else like that, that knew there was a difference,,,

 

[blacksmithman64]

:haha: Gotta love those salespeople that say "...but..but..its just as good as a USA made one!"

 

[mckutzy]

in ur pic there of the pipes u made, what did u use for the long stems of thoes church warden pipes?


Loyd- very nice, how do they smoke?

 

[ameling]

in ur pic there of the pipes u made, what did u use for the long stems of thoes church warden pipes?


Loyd- very nice, how do they smoke?

Those green stems are actually bamboo. I picked up a packet of bamboo garden stakes at the local store. I tride to find some that weren't painted green, but they were out that day.

The bamboo is very similar to reed - a cousin to it. Just cut a section between the joints and taper the end to stick inside the pipe. When I form up those pipe bowls, I use a 1/4 inch diameter rod as a final mandrel to form them. It could be bigger, but that is what worked for me at that time. So I do have to search through those garden stakes to pic ones small enough in diameter. Otherwise I would have to whittle them down a bunch to fit.

And that bamboo (or reed) could be bent as well. A little wet heat will allow it to bend some. And then clamp/hold it in that curve until it cools and dries. So a curved reed (bamboo) stem could be made up - to more closely resemble those "Gandalf" or Leprechan pipes from the movies. But you do need to bend the pipe bowl/stem a little more then - to make them look better. Plus bend it more without kinking it too much too tight!

These sheet iron pipes look just like the clay pipes of those early times. And they date about the same historically. Some were found down in the Tunica Indian sites along the Gulf Coast in the mid 1600's. And also up in the Seneca Indian village sites from the mid/late 1600's. One from Maryland is pictured in Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution -- and is dated to 1725. Plus they show up all across the Great Lakes fur trade areas from the early 1700's up well into the 1800's. This includes the Ohio River valley and Mississippi River valleys. There is even a French officer's account of one out near present day New Ulm Minnesota in 1700 - at a Fort Huilier. So the sheet iron and sheet brass pipes have the same history as the clay pipes. The clay pipes just were far more common in trade/use.

Lloyd? Yes, my first several pipes DID have nick/dings and hammer marks in them. Time and experience smooths that out.

Just another of the oft neglected iron trade goods of the past.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[chipper]

I'll have to try the reeds now that I understand how to do it.

They smoke really pretty nice. I had a fellow say that tin must be awful but it's not. And It doesn't get any hotter than a clay pipe.

One really has to follow the directions though. The seams have to be filled in with something like glue or you will draw until you go blue in the face and the smoke won't draw. I used beeswax because I didn't think about elmers glue at the time. I simply rolled the bees wax into a little string and stuffed it into the fold.

Regards
Loyd