od archduke » 27 lis. 2004, 00:21
Making the Pipe
The first step in actually making your pipe is drilling the smoke hole and mortise and the tobacco hole. A drill press is your best bet. I am fortunate to have a Shop smith lathe (wood lathe) in the shop and find that, with the proper setup, I prefer using this handy tool. The key to success when using one tool or the other, however, lies in accurately measuring the angles and depths of the holes you're going to be drilling as related to the square outer surface of the briar block. I first drill the smoke hole and mortise and then the tobacco hole. If the depth and angle of the smoke hole are accurately controlled, meeting the tobacco hole exactly in the center of the bottom is simply a matter of carefully drilling the tobacco hole while frequently pulling the bit out as you near the planned depth to visually check the bottom of the hole. When the smoke hole becomes visible, carefully proceed, using a light touch with the drill, until the relationship of the holes with one another is optimal.
For drilling the tobacco hole, I highly recommend the special bits sold by Stemco-Pimo; they will produce a hole of the proper size with the proper rounded bottom contour. A set of three bits in sizes appropriate for most pipes costs about $16. You could, of course, make your own bits by shaping commercial spade wood bits to the proper contour on a grinder. Another possibility that I have considered but not yet tried is to use contoured milling burrs of the proper shape and size, which I have seen in tool supply catalogs. These are designed to mill holes in metal and would undoubtedly work equally well in briar burl and would perhaps leave an even smoother inner surface to the tobacco hole than a wood bit does. Sanding the interior of the tobacco hole on a finished pipe is rather difficult because of its limited size and rather deep contour, so any help in tarea would be most welcome.
When the drilling is finished, you are ready to begin shaping your pipe to its finished contours. Briar burl is a very hard wood, and you will quickly find that removing large quantities of stock with a coping saw or hacksaw by first cutting off corners and other portions of the plateau that fall outside the lines of the finished pipe will save you much time and effort. (Save these pieces!) Be sure to leave sufficient stock for small changes in shape to allow for removal of interior flaws that might be uncovered in the sawing.(Access to a band saw is quite helpful)
You may choose among several tools to actually shape the pipe. Experienced wood carvers might prefer a knife. However, I believe that the hardness of the material makes files more appropriate. Even better is a hobby tool such as a Foredom flex-shaft or even a Dremel tool if you have one available. I am fortunate to have a Foredom flex-shaft tool and a selection of cutting, grinding and drilling bits available in the shop. I use this tool almost exclusively to shape my pipes once I have removed the excess wood by sawing. The most useful bit I have found and the one I use about 95% of the time is a 1/2" sanding drum equipped with the coarsest abrasive available (80 or 100 grit). With this tool, I shape the stummel (that part of the pipe comprising the bowl and shank) from start to approximate final shape. It removes material quite rapidly, and you should practice with it in order to insure that you don't inadvertently take off too much in any one spot. With a bit of practice, you can use it almost instinctually, and it allows you to shape the hard burl with amazing ease. When you use this tool, I recommend that you wear a disposable paper filter mask to prevent the fine briar dust from clogging your nasal passages. Eye protection is also mandatory.
When you have achieved a shape that satisfies you, the sanding process begins. The object here is to refine the shape to its final lines and to remove as many flaws as possible (hopefully, all of them) from the visible surface while arriving at a stummel that is ready for staining and/or waxing. I begin the sanding process with 100 grit paper, using hand sanding or wrapping the paper around an appropriately shaped item, such as a drill bit, a pencil or my finger, to get at the curved places. Once I have completely sanded the stummel with the 100 grit paper, I progress to 150 grit, then 220 grit and on through 400 grit to final sanding with 600 grit paper. This process sounds fast in the telling, but it actually consumes more time than the actual shaping of the stummel with the Foredom tool.
The satisfaction you or anyone will feel from handling and using your finished pipe is largely derived from the perfection of its finish, so any amount of time spent to achieve perfection here is time well spent. When the sanding is completed to my satisfaction, I next wipe the entire stummel down with alcohol on a soft cloth. Wiping serves to remove sanding dust and to expose any flaws that the dust may have hidden or any scratches left by the final sanding. Almost invariably when I carefully examine the stummel, I find some tiny spot that I didn't sand quite thoroughly or some tiny flaw that I think could be removed by further sanding. This, mind you, after I was virtually certain that I had done a perfect job in the first place! I have been known to revert to the 220 grit or the 400 grit level as many as three times on a single stummel before finally arriving at what I consider an acceptably sanded end product.