Cricketman Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 So recently I've been taken by the thought of carving myself a tobacco pipe. My Grandad used to smoke one and so did my father, and it just something I want to try out... Now to make a pipe usually your looking at briar/cherry/white ash.... What NZ native timber could I use? Just due to availability and i would like that extra association to make it special. Cheers in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 neat idea! What attributes does wood for a pipe need to have? Presumably it needs to be quite hard. I am wondering about totara. Not that I really know much about native timber... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 and, um, smoking is bad for you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 possibly the same timber used for coffins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 The term hardwood relates to the cell structure of the wood. Some woods which are hardwoods such as kauri and totara are actually soft as butter to work with or carve. A good hard wood would be black maire which is very dense and has a good grain pattern. Using the timber from coffins would be worse than the tobacco as it is customwood which is bonded with urea-formadehyde. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 possibly the same timber used for coffins? very clever barrie what about manuka alanmin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 A good hard wood would be black maire which is very dense and has a good grain pattern. . Agreed. Dad has coffee tables made from this and it's awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted June 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 I know its bad etc etc. but meant to be better than other smoking. Pipe and cigar tobacco is grown differently and handled differently. Less nicotine, and no added nicotine like ciggie tobacco's. and the wood absorbs a lot of the nicotine and tar. Also, pipe tobacco you don't inhale, it is a lot harsher. Ciggie tobacco is bred to be mild so that you can inhale it easily. I already smoke cigars on occasion, and thought a pipe would be nice to try out, and i enjoy carving and using my hands, so why not?... The wood should be hard, and preferably not inanely flammable (seems odd but Briar is used because it withstands higher temps that other wood would start burning up at). Manuka probably wouldn't work for the flammability aspect. Totara I didn't think about... Haven't heard of black maire, how hard is it to get hold of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted June 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 Researching black maire, it seems that it is a good wood to look out for. slow burning and great heat output should mean that it is hard enough and fire-resistant enough to handle... Rewarewa also seems a good outlook from what I can see, anyone know more on that? or Tawa... I have no idea about the availability of these woods, especially in a decent size block for carving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 Researching black maire, it seems that it is a good wood to look out for. slow burning and great heat output should mean that it is hard enough and fire-resistant enough to handle... Rewarewa also seems a good outlook from what I can see, anyone know more on that? or Tawa... I have no idea about the availability of these woods, especially in a decent size block for carving. Dad uses Maire for firewood every year, if he didn't live so far away I could give you some! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted June 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 Dad uses Maire for firewood every year, if he didn't live so far away I could give you some! how far away is so far away??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 20, 2010 Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 A pipe is usually made with a seperate bowl and stem to get the grains running the strongest way. Rata is dense but tends to shake. One of the hardest woods is a common ornamental tree with a crispate leaf and a green or red form but for the life of me I can't remember the name. It is very common in gardens around this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 The tree above is akeake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 Dodonea viscosa - crispate leaves? The purple variant self seeds like a weed around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 Dodonaea viscosa Silent a maybe? as it seems to be pronounced how you've spelt it Zev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted June 21, 2010 Report Share Posted June 21, 2010 how far away is so far away??? Raetihi. I don't go down too often, it's cold haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted July 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 Well, I went with manuka and leather, and I'm glad that I did! Nice wood to work with, and easy to get hold of, nice colours in there too! Handmade leather pouch to keep everything I need together the one main imperfection, but it is just visual, smokes fine, had it running quite hot yesterday and it was still okay. Overall, I'm happy as a pig in mud with it, smaller bowl than traditional pipes (usually ~18mm-20, where as mines maybe ~10) means alot easier to have a small amount of baccy at a time, which is good, since the bigger pipes can be smoked for hours at a time off one bowl, and I really don't want that much at a time. Learnt a lot making it, was really good fun. Might start making them to sell at market days... My next pipe I'm thinking Totara... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted July 19, 2010 Report Share Posted July 19, 2010 Totara is like cheese to work with--that is why it was used for carving by people using relatively blunt greenstone tools. It contains that much resin it will no absorb oil and bleeds resin giving a frosted effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos & Siran Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Try Kanuka, very similar to Manuka in some respects but is a deep rich red, nice to work with too, or so I've been told. Or even better, a nice piece of heart Rimu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Kanuka might be OK. Heart rimu looks great but when turning, if you get it too hot when sanding it develops shakes on the end grain so it may react badly to the heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted July 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Tried kanuka, it not as red as manuka, but my peice was a bit too wet to start with too. Thanks for the heads up on totara. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymox Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Looking good anyway bro, Will have to check it out, and get a mouthpiece for mine so we can enjoy some erinmoore flake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 In my smoking days that was my favourite backie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted July 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 I've been using Le Paz vanilla panetella cigar, just crushed up the internal (machine made) and then cut the outer leaves into flakes. Does very well, and easy on the wallet at $3.50 for panatella... compared to $50+ for a bag of pipe tobacco. Tried a Tatiana cherry that didn't even taste or smell the slightest like cherry... :roll: Quite enjoying discovering new brands and types of tobacco, the Dutch tobaccos are completely different to the cuban or havana, and the English pipe tobaccos are incredibly hard to smoke unless your used to it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
repto Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 cricketman,try a bit of persimmon wood if you can find some.Apparently related to mahogahy and very hard,has been used for making golf clubs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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