The rebel pipe

It is the story of a piece of wood that wanted to refuse to turn into a pipe and of a stubborn craftsman who thought otherwise. 

The chosen piece of wood was a mahogany with 25 years of aging. 

The craftsman had chosen it with care because he knew the properties of this wood well: excellent aptitude for finishing, good mechanical strength, high hardness so he would not easily be scratched, good stability, excellent curing capacity… in short, all this, combined with the beauty of the color and the veins made it particularly suitable for the creation of a pipe… The only thing that played in the opposite direction was the rather high price that the dealer had offered him, but by now the craftsman had entered the order of ideas of  make a mahogany pipe and the cost did not make him retreat.  As soon as he arrives in the laboratory he faces the piece with a Japanese saw and cuts a cube of the size suitable for obtaining a nice straight pipe.  He draws it with a yellow pencil and moves to the column drill station for the drilling job.  He fixes the piece on a vice and chooses the right bit to pierce the seat of the mouthpiece, but as soon as the bit comes into contact with the mahogany it has a strange rebound that causes the drill chuck come off…

“It starts well!” 

Fortunately, the piece does not suffer damage… Reassemble the spindle and resume work.  First the hole of the tenon, then that of the chimney and last the hole of the smoke passage.  After choosing the mouthpiece he thought was most suitable, he grabbed the Japanese saw again and began to streamline the cube bringing out a sketch of the blowpipe perfectly perpendicular to the chimney. 

A smile appears on the craftsman’s face…

The wood was hard but well workable.  It was a question of giving the piece the thought-out shape. The most suitable tool is a belt sander;  the craftsman approaches the mahogany to the rotating disc on which a 120-grit sandpaper was positioned and patiently begins the work.

«It seems that this piece is rebelling!  Maybe he would have preferred to become a piece of furniture!». 

The disc with the sandpaper was really struggling to remove material; the craftsman kept the piece well-balanced and, slowly the chimney begins to assume the typical rounded shape of a billard. 

It’s time for the blowpipe.  The sander now show off the two centimeter wide vertical belt and the craftsman twirls the future pipe on it giving the blowpipe a round shape with a diameter very similar to what it should have been at the end. 

Once the work is finished, mount the mouthpiece;  we are talking about a sketch, but the shape is the right one! 

The craftsman’s hands are sore but when he sees that reddish cube transforming he fills with enthusiasm; he takes it in his hands, retrieves the support he had previously turned for the purpose, and inserts it from one side into the chimney. 

The other end holds it in a vice and choosen a piece of 60 grit sand paper, begins to refine the shapes.

Cleaning the piece manually you feel all the imperfections that must be eliminated.  But the hands are not a mechanical sander and the fingers begin to hurt… it stops. 

The craftsman resumes his work the next day.  The cleaning is quite long: 60 grit sandpaper until the correct shape is obtained, then it passes to 120, 150, 220, 280 grit to finish with 400 grit.

The pipe is very smooth, a pleasure to hold in your hand! 

It’s time for the mouthpiece and polishing. 

As for the mouthpiece, everything proceeds according to the rule, but that piece of rebellious mahogany still seems unwilling to accept tobacco to be burned.  The craftsman had cleaned it with alcohol, protected with the appropriate oil and left to rest for two days.  Put it back in your hands, start cleaning it with a cotton swab, then spread the carnauba wax to finish polishing. 

He is very satisfied!  The mahogany shows off all its beautiful veins and takes on a dark red color.  He twirls the pipe in his hands, passing it on the rotating pad;  it is smooth, very smooth and shiny… maybe too much… the rebellious mahogany slips out of the hands of the craftsman and fell on the floor dents! 

“What a mess!”  The craftsman despairs but does not give up.  Go back to using sand paper, from coarse to fine until you remove the dent.  Go over the oil, wait another two days, then go back to polishing it.  Now his hands are like a vice. The pipe no longer escapes him and that piece of mahogany so reluctant to become a pipe is forced to surrender in the face of the craftsman’s tenacity.