how to carve a smoking pipe

[ramm]

hi all,

i'm new here..

i just found my passion in woodcarving *havent done any project yet..

i'll be asking about tools for certain job..

i'm thinking about carving a smoking pipe out of Briar wood..

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/40yr-old-BRIAR-PIPE-BLOCK-NEW-synthetic-PIPE-STEM-sb23_W0QQitemZ5463201143QQcategoryZ596QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

<<thats the link to the briar wood..

what kind of tools i'll be needing for that kind of carving??
i'm thinking about carving knifes.. and might be a gouge but im not so sure..

could you suggest me the right tools for that??


i also watched DIY channel last night, and there was a guy carving a rooster out of a tree branch, by using swiss army knife (that red folding knifes).. that swiss army knife somehow similar with the carving knife..
so i got a bit confused, whether should i buy a carving knife or the swiss army.. does the steel of the blade is different between those two?? might be the hardness/density??



thanks a lot for participating :)

[ramm]

would someone start to help me?? :p

[Lignum]

Hows things Ramm:) Carving dosnt appear to be to popular in this forum. What i would suggest is to go to a Newsagent and in the woodwork section get a couple of woodcarving magazines. They will have beginer projects that will advise on the type of chisels to buy. If you think you will get into it dont buy cheap chisel sets, just get three or four of the basics but get a good brand like Pfeil. Good luck and keep us posted:)

[Andy Mac]

Hi ramm,
Welcome! I have an article in a FWW "Workshop Specialties" book, a guy in US carving briar pipes, I'll dig it out and see what he's using. Knife or gouge, I wonder how you'll hold it when carving...they'd be tricky things to clamp. Maybe a extension left on part of it, cut off last.
Don't know for sure, but maybe mallee root would substitute for briar. The grain looks similar and I think briar is hard & heavy too...anyone?
You gonna use it/them, or just decoration? You know we can't condone that sort of activity!:p

Cheers,

[ramm]

lignum

i read a book that relates with woodcarving.. the book actually covered a lot of carving such as whittling, sculpting, chip carving etc.. and the tool that has been suggested there is a carving knife, quite a lot of the works have been dont by using carving knife.. the types of wood that have been used in that book are both softwood and hardwood, but i think the book suggests softwood as a starter..

andy mac

wow the book must be helpful.. i've been looking for a book like that, but couldn't find it :( i only found a book about pipe brands n stuff
the thing with briar wood is probably the hardness of the wood.. and as for the smoking pipe, we got to drill the hole or maybe we could do it with gouges?? but still the drill must be needed to make the draught hole since it quite small..
another option is the olivewood, but i dont know about it's hardness, harder or softer compared with briar..

[Andy Mac]

Hi ramm,
Just went looking for said article, and it wasn't in the 'Specialties edition, its in FWW Carving book...should've thought more about it! The guys name is Brandon Chambers, and he used something called "meerschaum" which I have no idea about, and ivory, then turned to briar, which is described as a sphere between a tree base and root area. Sounds like a mallee root to me! He starts off by roughing out a form on the bandsaw, then turning the inner bowl section on a lathe before drilling the draft hole (1/8" give or take 1/32") Apparently how these two holes join is critical. He then proceeds with files, rifflers and die grinders with various burrs, finishing with scraping, steel wool and buffers. Not a gouge or whittling knife in sight! I'm sure you could do it in a more traditional way, but I will say malleee root is hard, and doesn't always respect a chisel! Filing is the go for shaping the stuff.
If you want I can photocopy the article and send to you...there are some pretty wild photos of his work featured.

Cheers,

[Lignum]

Ramm, i do some antique repro/repair carving and some relief and figures for fun. My set that suits all my needs is (in order of priority as in what you will use most) They are all Pfeil. The two that start with "D" are what they call beginers and the blades are identicle to the larger ones but shorter handles and cost far less, they would be what i would start with justs getting two or three at a time

5/12 - 8/7 - 12/4 - 14/8 - 5f/8 11/3 - 13/8 - 1/2 - 5a/20 - 5a/5 - d12/6 - d5/12 - and numbers 1, 3 and 4 knifes.

Good practice woods are Obechi, Beech and Sassafras all light in density and easy to obtain:)

[ramm]

lignum

i went to carbatec couple days ago, and there were at least three brands of carving knifes, there were, pfeil, two cherry and japanese carving knifes.. however i watched this DIY woodcarving and there was a guy using swiss army (the folding knife).. so i'm kind of hard to decide which knife that i'm going to buy..

i'm leaning towards carving knife (pfeil or japanese brand), but this guy seems doing just fine with the swiss army.. well he was carving a rooster from a tree branch.. i dont know if the swiss army could handle the harder wood though..


andy mac


i'm sorry but i dont know what FWW carving book is..where i can find this book??
about the article, it will be helpful, and i appriciate it if its not a hassle for you..
the guy who sell the briar wood on the ebay told me once about the filer as well.. though maybe i could make the decoration with whittling knife?!?!

that briar wood made me thinking.. why "briar"?!?! i mean, does it will give better flavour?? and actually the pipe could be made from olivewood as well.. does the olivewood harder/less harder than briar??



sorry for so many questions :p
thanks

[Andy Mac]

Hi ramm,
FWW = Fine Woodworking, a US based magazine by Taunton press, arguably the best quality mag around (wait for posts on that comment!:D ). They put together "Best of" books, compiled from articles over the years. I've got 3 of them, the carving one is pretty good.
I don't like your chances of getting briar here, which is why I mentioned mallee. I think you need a pretty dense, solid timber that isn't inclined to burn!:p Actually mallee does burn when it gets going, used to make the best fires when I was a kid. I have some olive wood, and although heavy-ish, not in the same league. Do you really want to make a pipe, or just get into carving and whittling? There are easier timber to start with, thats what I'm thinking.
BTW, I use Pfiel tools mostly, great gear, and also have some Two Cherries. Can't go wrong with either...unless you start hooking into dried old Eucalypt (ie mallee) and you may damage the cutting edges!:eek: That Chambers article mentioned using unseasoned stock, the seasoning happens during the smoking process!!

Cheers,

[ramm]

hi andy,

i havent got a chance to find the FWW.. i've been busy preparing my exam lately :eek: prolly next week i'll go to carbatec..

i think i'll be getting the carving knife, and might be a file..
for hard wood carving, what am i gonna need? a gouge and a chisel??

basically what the difference between carpentry chisel and carving chisel??

http://www.carbatec.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=40_7210_7220_7261 <<for economy chisel, this one looks pretty good..

i'll keep you posted

ramm

[twokie]

I recently finished carving a pipe out of a piece of White Oak branch(8" branch). Came out really nicely, put the draft hole in it with a flat blade screw driver by hand(took about 2 hours, came out great, perfectly straight). I carved the rest with a razor knife(really eats up the blades, especially the tips). I think I made a mistake by laqouring it-then clearing it... I didn't get any laqour in the bowl or anything, but the whole thing still smells like chemicals. I'm kind of leery of smoking out of it now... I'd definitely use something softer than oak though!

[Felder]

I recently finished carving a pipe out of a piece of White Oak branch(8" branch). Came out really nicely

PICTURES, Twokie!! We need PICTURES!!:cool:

Welcome, BTW.:)