Awesome work! I am to the carving point of my 1st pipe. just finished the lathe work last night, now to carve the shape.. I am using cherry wood for now and I have some briar on the way. Speaking of VF I just had a conversation with him earlier today and will be placing an order this upcoming week!
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yea these blocks are from Vermont Freehand
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The original poster Jason/Deadrise agrees this topic can benefit from everyone posting their carvings or creations to it instead of a separate topic each time. Thank you. :-)

For my first attempt at making a pipe, I bought some pre-drilled kits from Pipes & Cigars. One of the three had a less than perfect drill job on the drought hole, it is a bit off centered. P&C is my favorite retailer, but I will buy the rest of my kits (already ordered one) from Vermont Freehand.

Being so many years since I have worked with wood, I forgot a few things and made an error in sanding. I sanded my pipe to 12,000 grit without doing any dye/stain along the way. The pipe shines but won't take the dye...I will have to re-sand back to 400 grit to apply the dye then sand, then dye, then sand ect...then polish with tripoli & white diamond.

ALL my shaping was done using 60 grit sanding disc on a little all-in-one set-up from the 60's called a toastmaster deluxe. Here is a link to what those do & look like. This is not my set-up, bu what I have is identical. http://vintagemachinery.org/photoind...l.aspx?id=5120

I wish I took more pictures along the way even though I have to back track. (at least now I can get more pictures)

Picture #1 is rough pre-drilled block.

Picture #2 is after I finished shaping and ready to hand sand.

Picture #3 is a different angle after finished shaping

Picture #4 is after being sanded to 12k grit. It really may not benefit much from polishing after being sanded this far...I'll know for sure next week.

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very cool looking pipe well done Wayne
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Real nice job man. :-)
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Thanks Gents, you may be able to see a couple little "blackheads" that popped up when sanding the bowl. The hard part for me is just starring at the darn thing not being able to put on the dye/stain. I don't want to start another until this one is finished and in my small town no one carries anything that I'd put on a pipe. The guy I bought my dyes from off fleabay took 3-4 days before he mailed the dyes out then add the long weekend...this waiting :-) makes me want to :-) :-) :-)

Not sure what to call the shape??? A stand-up billiard??? :-)
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Finished my hack job today for the most part. I still need to "port & polish" the drought hole in the stem and just don't feel like doing that tonight. :-)

I sanded to 400 grit, stained it U.S.M.C. Black, then sanded most of that off and stained it British Tan, sanded some more, stained it Yellow & sanded some more...I kept sanding until I hit 12k grit. Gave it a Tripoli buff, then a White Diamond buff, then multi-coats of Carnauba wax

Not bad for the first time around. I almost stopped after the British Tan, it was looking real good at that point. AND I next time I will take off more of the U.S.M.C. Black. LOTS of contrast going on.

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very good job on that finish it is very interesting i got 4 colors of stain powders 1 black 1 red and a dark and light gold i need to play around some more........looks great!!!!!!!!
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It isn't quite as bright gold or yellow as the picture shows. It lit up when the flash hit the shine of the wax job.
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These pipes look great. This is definitely on my list of projects to do someday.
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Great job on that contrasting finish, looks very nice.
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thanks, It's all a huge learning curve, at least it is fun.

I finally ported my stem but one thing after another keeps getting in my way to using the pipe for the first time...yesterday it was cigars :-) and today my "other" hobby took up the entire day since 4 a.m. and I'm still not done. :-)
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Alright guys, I think I have a bit to share with you all as well! I have started my journey into pipe making as well and these are the 3 projects I have going on at the moment. I have been using a wood lathe to get the shapes I wanted then hitting them with a dremel followed by a lot of hand sanding. All 3 of these are cherry wood as I got them for free and haven't wanted to mess with the briar I have yet. I got the cherry in 2x4x4 blocks and had to do all the holes and shaping, it is surprising relaxing and oh man how the time flies when I am out in the garage.. Technically the 1st pipe is done but I dont think I am done messing with it yet. I still feel like I want to stain it and buff it out some more.
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here is a partially rusticated billiard that just needs stain and the works.
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and here is what I am hoping will turn out to be a decent looking author pipe if not I am not sure what shape it will take lol!
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Very nice gentlemen, you've both got some talent. I would be proud to smoke any one of those.:-)
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IMHO that is the best part of making pipes. Want one thing, but the briar says something else. :-)
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Moving my stuff to a friend's shop so I can work on "things" through the winter. AND I just ordered some briar & rod stock for cutting my own mouth pieces. Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon. I plan on making a couple traditional pipes, one custom as well as some non-traditional shaped pocket pipes.

My friend wants to make a few custom cobs, and possibly carve a meer or two.
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Awesome work guys!!!!
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Did ya ever get this one finished?
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Ended up starting a similar shape today. I can't believe I forgot to take the "BEFORE" picture. I put a couple chunks of the briar back in place after rough shaping just to show the original type of block I started with. I cheated and used a band saw to cut off the two larger sections to save time. Rough shaping was done with a 60 grit disc on a shaper...then 80 by hand, & just started 120 when I called it a day...the pictures are from just after starting 80 grit.

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