I've been wanting to do a thread like this, and several people have asked me to - so here we go.  I made a couple of pipes today, and I took photos along the way, so here's a "how to build a pipe" photo essay.  Now, please keep in mind that I've only been doing this for a little while, and am by no means an expert.  I'm just an enthusiastic amateur.  

Okay, so here we go.  

First, my workspace.  My wife and I have a hobby room, and I use "my side" to make pipes.  Bought all of the furniture from IKEA's kitchen stuff, and it was easy to install.  Very sturdy.



I've got all my various supplies and tools in the drawers and cabinets.  As you can see, I've got a bandsaw on one side, a sander and a polishing thingamajig on the other side. Note also the vacuum with tubes to attach to the bandsaw and sander.  This is very useful!

So, STEP 1:  Decide what the heck kind of a pipe you are making today!  There are obviously a huge number of pipe designs, from traditional billiard, to volcano, blowfish, bent apple, chidori, etc.  So you should first decide what you want your pipe to look like.  A good approach is to spend a LOT of time looking at pipes.  You can see lots of stuff online, but ideally you want to touch and hold pipes in your hand, so you know what you are going for.  At that point, drawing out your design is a really good idea!




Then STEP 2: pick a piece of wood.  I buy all of my briar from Vermont Freehand.  There are other places you can buy, but I like the consistency in their product.  When you are choosing a piece of briar, you are not just picking a piece that has the right shape, but you need to decide what quality of briar you want.  The better it is, the less chance of flaws, but the more expensive.  Once you pick a piece of wood, it's probably a good idea to draw a rough outline in pencil.




STEP 3: The band saw.  This is the first step where I start actually shaping the wood.  Be warned: it is VERY EASY to take off too much wood, and then you're boned, because you cannot undo a cut.  Trust me, this is experience talking.  

It's important to note that you do not NEED a bandsaw.  When I first started making pipes, I did not have a bandsaw, but used a belt sander and other hand tools.  A band saw just makes things easier.




STEP 4: The sander.  As mentioned above, I used to use a belt sander, but this oscillating sander is much better, and allows for more control and detail.  The very rough shape that the band saw allowed can now be refined a bit.

STEP 5: The mighty dremel! With the dremel tool, and some sanding drums, I then start to get the shape I want a little more clearly.





Before we spend too much time on shaping our perfect pipe, we want to DRILL the three holes we need.  We need a chamber, a bore (the hole connecting the mouthpiece to the chamber) and the mortise (the hole that the stem fit into).  So, a really important thing is to PLAN out exactly where we are going to drill.  Spending a lot of time on this will save a lot of grief late.  You cannot undrill a hole, and rushing this is an easy way to ruin a pipe and waste an expensive piece of briar.  Again, trust me.  .  So with a pencil, plan out where you are going to drill.




STEP 6: DRILLING.  A drill press is probably not necessary, in the sense that you can probably make a pipe with a vise and a hand drill - but a drill press will make things MUCH easier.  



I start with the bore - the thin tube that connects the chamber (with the tobacco) to the mouthpiece.  Especially if you have a long shank, you need to be VERY careful when you are drilling.  Measure, so to that you are drilling deep enough to where the chamber is going to be.



After that, I drill the motise - a hole with a bigger diameter, which the tenon (end) of the stem is going to fit into.



Once those are drilled, I drill the chamber.  I use bits that I bought from Vermont Freehand that are specific for this purpose.  A bit expensive, but worth it.





At this point, you have all of the basic requirements of a pipe (minus the stem).  

STEP 7: Finishing the shape.  Depending on the shape and how rough it is, you might use various files, or it may be all sandpaper from this point on.

I typically use 120 grit sandpaper to finish the shape, and then work my way down - with 220, then 320 and then 400 grit - to a smooth finish that is ready for stain.





STEP 8: Choosing a stem.  This is something you probably did when you were planning the pipe way back in step 1.  As you can tell from the pictures below, there are lots of options in terms of available shapes.  I tend to buy vulcanite, but there are lots of acrylic stems available as well.  If you are really ambitious, you can buy rods of vulcanite or acrylic, and shape your own stems from scratch.  What's nice about the pre-shaped ones is that you can still shape them to a certain extent by heating them and bending them.



Once you've decided on a stem, you'll typically need to turn the diameter down to whatever you drilled the mortise to, so you'll have a tight fit.  I originally tried to do this by sanding, but eventually caved and bought a specific tool from Vermont Freehand (where else )





STEP 9: Marking/stamping the pipe.  This is purely an OPTIONAL step.  If you are just making a pipe for yourself, there's no need to bother.  In this step, I add a serial number and my trademark.





STEP 10: Stain/color.  There are obviously tons of options here in terms of color.  I use aniline dyes, dissolved in methanol/alcohol or some kind.  That way, the dye/stain dye sticks, and the liquid evaporates very quickly.  Obviously, you want to be careful in terms of what you put onto a pipe that you are going to be smoking.  You don't want anything toxic.  Aniline dye (or leather dyes) seem to be the accepted way to stain/color pipes.

That's mighty nice work.

STEP 11: Finish the stem. Vulcanite stems will have flashing (is that the right term?) from the mould, so you'll need to sand off the irregularities, and get the stem nice and smooth.  I use a dremel with a fine sanding wheel to start, and then ever finer sandpaper to finish.




STEP 12: Polishing.  This is the FINAL STEP, and then we are done!    I typically put Tripoli on the stem, and 100% Carnauba wax on the pipe itself.  Polishing is actually pretty tricky, so it takes a while to learn how to do it well.  I used to just do it with a dremel (you can get polishing wheel attachments) but I eventually caved and got a desktop spinny-whirly thing for polishing.  I'm slowly learning how to polish pipes well.




STEP 13: Pat yourself on the back.   Here's the final product:








Ironically, I am actually not happy with this pipe.    In retrospect, I drilled the mortise hole for the stem at a wrong angle, so I don't think the pipe looks right.  The stem should be angled slightly higher upwards.  So this is a "failed" pipe from my perspective.  Don't get me wrong - I am very happy with the shape itself, but it just doesn't look right with the stem.  

Fortunately, while I was making this pipe, I was also making a second one, which I wasn't taking pictures of during the process.  That one turned out better.  Here it is:

So there you go - that's how I make a pipe.  Well, technically, that's how i make two pipes.    The whole process to make the two pipes from scratch took me maybe 4 - 5 hours.  

Everything needed is in the workspace from the first picture - with the exception of the drill press which is down in my utility/tool room.  

As some of you may have noticed, I am a cheapskate .  The band saw is a pretty cheap one from Sears, and the other tools are really cheap - by a brand called Wen, but which seems a really good value for money.   So in terms of cost, this is not a super-expensive hobby.  I did spend a bit of money buying the chamber bits and the tenon turning tool from Vermont Freehand, but that's a one-time expense.

The wood (briar) can be expensive.  As I mentioned, you decide what you want in terms of quality.  Lower quality can be pretty cheap, but you run the risk of flaws in the wood.  But, high quality briar can be pricey (like $45 for a nice piece).  So there's a wide range possible.  I do occasionally buy the very expensive stuff, but mostly I get cheaper stuff.  After all, I am still learning and figuring stuff out.

In the first picture, you can see the $50 bill you sent me, on my cork board!!!

Thanks, that was interesting.  You won't be a master until you figure out how to fix that crooked stem.

If you start using knives and other carving tools, rasps, and files, I bet your work will go quicker and you'll be able to make different and more complicated shapes.

More than once I've been tempted to smoke a pipe, and I have wanted to make one since I was a kid, thinking all I needed to do was dig up a blackberry root!

I am so anal-retentive, that it bugged me so much that I found a way to re-drill for a larger stem, and I just finished the new stem and re-polishing part of the pipe.  

However, I am far, FAR from a master at pipes.

But at least I managed to fix that one.  

I definitely have a lot to learn.  I literally know nothing about wood working.

Here’s the fix I implemented last night.  I found some of my stems were wider, so I re-drilled a larger mortise at the correct angle, and turned the tenon to that size hole.  So I didn’t have the choice of perfect stem I wanted, but I think this looks a million times better.  

Thanks.  

The first couple of pipes I made, I did start with pre-drilled/stemmed blocks.  Drilling takes bit of learning, and ideally a drill press, so starting with a pre-drilled block is very helpful for a beginner.

I will eventually sell them (if people are interested), and a fellow arfcommer is currently setting up a website for me.  So that will hopefully be up soon.  But, i’ve Also promised about eight different people - friends and family - to make them pipes, so it will take a bit of time to work through the backlog.  . I would be fun to have a pipe making side business, so I have set up an LLC for it, and registered the trademark.  Heck, if nothing else, at least I can tax deduct some of the cost of wood and equipment.  

The logo was actually made by another arfcommer as well, and is a Viking ship seen from the front.  

It’s yours if you want it.  

Pricing is an interesting issue, so I am just going to ramble for a while as I pontificate on it ...

In large part, of course it depends on reputation.  If you are a nobody, why would someone buy pipes from you, when there are established companies out there?  

There are lots of players in the market - both large and small.  There are TONS of companies that make high quality pipes at around the $100 price point.  For example, I have bought beautiful pipes from Nørding (a well-known Danish pipe maker) and from Tsuge (a well-known Japanese pipe maker) for between $90 and $120.  Obviously excellent design and professional workmanship and finishing.  So it would seem unreasonable to expect to really be able to charge more than that, and with no reputation, one would expect to charge much less than that.

On the other hand, there are pipe makers who make relatively small numbers of pipes and charge huge prices.  If you look at people like Kei-Ichi Gotoh, Alex Florov or Konstantin Shekita (and others), they make pipes that cost thousands of dollars each .  Of course, that is because they have amazing skills and a well-earned reputation.  However, if I can make pipes that are inspired by some of their designs (or some shameless knock-offs), then I guess it's possible that people would be willing to pay something like $300 in order to have something akin to a $3000 pipe, just without the brand name.  

For example, here are a couple of Gotoh-inspired pipes I have made.




So I'd probably try to price something like that somewhere between $200 and $300.  But who knows?  Ultimately, the market will tell me.  

Finding a specific market is also something to think about.  My social circle is filled with highly-paid academic nerds, and I live in the D.C. area - my wife has suggested that since smoking pot is now legal in D.C., I should be targeting the up-scale pretentious hipster market with my pipes.  

Of course, up to this point, I have only had one "customer" - and that is ARFCOM member alphabravo (who posted in this thread).    I sold him the pipe pretty much at material cost.  As I mentioned, I am proudly displaying the $50 he sent me.  Eventually I will frame it with my certificate of incorporation.

Currently I am also giving away some pipes to friends and family.  An army buddy of mine in Denmark has a couple.  I've got friends in Kansas, Montana , Florida, Maryland, the UK and other places who I have promised pipes to.  Ultimately, my plan is that when the website is set up, I can have a page of customers/testimonials, and then it will look like I am ALREADY pretty established.  "Why, there are people all over the world, and all over the U.S. who have this guy's pipes" people will hopefully say, and that might help give the perception that I am a legitimate pipe maker.  


Another thing to consider is that this was really never intended as a business.  I started making pipes as a hobby, and because I am a cheapskate.  As I have mentioned, I would LOVE to have Kei Ichi Gotoh pipes, but I simply cannot justify spending that kind of money.  So I decided I'd just try making some of my own.  You'll notice that all of the pipes pictured above have been smoked, and thus cannot be sold.  I always only made them for myself.  ... but, eventually I started running out of room to put the pipes (even after putting up a new shelf in my library), and my wife suggested I should start selling them.

So even if I sell a couple here and there, I think the likelihood of ever even breaking even is probably pretty low.  After all, if all the initial fixed cost investments (like band saw, drill press, buffer, dyes, files, etc.), and the variables operating costs (like the wood itself, stems, sandpaper, buffing wheels, alcohol, etc.) and the theoretical value of my labor - all have to be accounted for, it's a good bet I will never be profitable.

But hey, at least I'll be able to deduct costs on my taxes!  

I made a couple of more "classic" billiard style pipes.

Even though these look simpler, they are actually much harder to make, IMO.  Especially the fit between the stem and the pipe is very tricky, and the symmetry in general is difficult.  I'm not really that good at it yet, but I think these turned out okay.

I don't actually have ANY fancy wood-carving abilities.  Something like that Meerschaum would be beyond me, even if I spent 100 years practicing.

There's something incredibly cool about old pipes that you've had forever, and has personal memories attached to them.  I have a porcelain pipe that my dad gave to me.  

I do like smooth curves, and almost organic-looking designs - like the Gotoh-inspired examples I posted above.  As another example, I just made this recently as well (just before the billiards, in fact):

I finally made a pipe that is what the first pipe in this thread SHOULD have been.  The pictures are not great, but you get the idea.

It should be about the same size, so not oversized.

I have to be careful how I respond to that, since I don't want to warn/ban myself for advertising without being a dealer or industry partner.

I'll send you an IM.

So I made a few more, but haven't stained them yet.  As I whined about earlier in this thread, I don't really like making billiards, because they are really hard!  

But, some of my friends really wanted one, so I made a few more.

I’ve made a few pipes in the style below.  It’s not quite poker, I think, but pretty close.

Thanks!  You are very kind.  

I honestly don’t know!  

Another arfcommer was developing it for me, and we agreed to a number of improvements - but then he ended up switching jobs and got really busy.

So I am also impatient ... but I don’t want to be too much of a jerk towards him.  

Hopefully SOON!  

Website is still not up

... but I did just finish another pipe.  I like this on a LOT ... but I am also a little disappointed in the fit between stem and shank.  

Yep.  I like it a lot.  For the money, I think it’s a hell of a deal.  So I’d definitely recommend it.

But, I am also only using it for occasional hobby use, so it may not stand up to heavy use.

The inspiration is a Viking drinking horn.