Stone Pipes

[paper thorn]

that's pretty much all i do gr8ful
sometimes maybe a little dish soap. but just a soak in hot tap water for half an hour loosens it up pretty good.

 

[gr8fulguitr]

Ah Ha cool beans! I totally over kill it and soak for a couple of days. Mostly cause I forget what i a doing.
It is reassuring to see someone else doing it this way. Thank you.
Great work !

 

[paper thorn]

That's the green pipe from a previous post. pretty rock, but while trying to pop out the core from the bottom of the stem hole as I drilled it, I snapped the stem in pieces.
I broke about three i think. wiped out about 10 hours of work.



A few of the pipes I'm working on. Most of these are in the polishing stage now, though my long stem bit wore out so probably 5 of them do not have the stems drilled all the way.



Drilling the stem on this nice breccia. if you enlarge the one on the right you'll see the little core sticking up in the bottom of the stem hole.

 

[~star~crash~]

Hey Good Morning !

nice work progressing in here ... peace 2 u today

 

[AgentPothead]

This is a great thread thank you for posting and all these pictures!

 

[gr8fulguitr]

sweet stone!
Thank you for showing the work!

I have almost no tools any more, I moved to an inner city apartment 20 years ago and I let almost all my toys go. So i really appreciate seeing your work, THaNKs

 

[paper thorn]

Sorry I'm not making regular updates, but life is busy.



That's a chipped stem hole. i let the pipe lean a bit while drilling and the pressure on the side of the stem hole chipped it. sucks because this one is already a tad short.



Some tools and a stem being drilled


my little work area


watching Haelos. The singer is so hot. i love this group.

 

[paper thorn]

These are some handles I'm making for some poker/scrapers.
See the pile of cores from drilling stems.



Every core chunk represents stopping drilling, snapping the core, dumping it out, refilling the hole with water and drilling another 1/6", maybe 1/8"



Drill press return spring broke, spindle just hangs there.
The pipe in the pic, was some interesting material.

 

[paper thorn]

I think this is petrified wood. I think it is a slab of bark from a 130 million year old tree. I want to cut it. i cut the end, it's dark green.



dang it, i have to go through some more pics, and upload later.

 

[Borderliner]

paper_torn send you a pm

 

[paper thorn]

That's the cut end of that piece of wood.


I get as close as i can to the end of the bit to get as much depth as possible.




After poking out a core.

 

[paper thorn]

more stem drilling

more stem drilling


you have to start at an angle or the bit will want to walk around.


snap out the core drill some more, repeat.



Deeper and deeper

 

[paper thorn]

Each time you have to fill the stem back up with water. Usually I plunge down to the bottom of the hole, hear it make its little grinding sound. Each time it will dry up the water and it needs to be raised back up so water can flow down to the bottom of the hole again. Plunge down 3 - 5 times, stop pour out the water and ground rock, pop the core, and refill it. if you try to plunge in 6 or more times, you'll boil the water, the hole will dry up at the bottom and you'll melt the metal at the end of the bit that holds the diamonds on. It'll screech a bit, you'll see smoke, drill bit is toast.

When the hole is shallow, you can only plunge in twice. 3 will boil the water, etc. That's how i know it boils, you can see it when the hole is shallow, because the hot bottom of the hole is close to the top. oops.

So when it's shallow, it holds less water and heats up faster.

 

[paper thorn]

5mm diamond coated bits. a couple have crap stuck in them, i'll have to drill them out with a skinny burr. on the right a new one.


just getting going on the stem, you can only drill for a few seconds. and add new water. i just use my finger tip, wet it and tap the stem.



Rigging up the drill with bungees to raise it up.
it worked, but the wires i had around the spindle were cutting a groove in the spindle. YIKES!

I am just using it without the return spring and kind of like it better. sorta.

 

[paper thorn]

Borderliner, here's that opal pipe, I don't know if i've put up a pic of this side of the bowl since i patched it. The epoxy does not go through to the inside. it's just filling a buggery vug and where the stem meets the bowl, a small crack appeared while grinding and i epoxied it for strength. bad color match even though i used dust from grinding it in the epoxy.





The cores are mostly out, but you can see gnarly chunks


grinding the bowl

 

[Borderliner]

paper torn the opal pipe looks good

 

[paper thorn]

guys, give me a bit more time. be patient. I've not forgotten.



anybody know what this is?



gonna make a sweet pipe.
super excited about this one.
this came to me with the commission to make the guy a pipe from it.

I didn't really want to cut it.



The pic is upside down, but that would be how it looked many years ago before someone yanked it off of the roof of a cave with a chain and a dune buggy. Then it ended up in a yard for many years, then it was brought to me.

 

[StRa]

Indian enjoying his pipe

BOOM!

 

[wolfhoundaddy]

Pipestone

Pipestone

Is the red pipe pipestone, from Minnesota?

Other stones used?

Not all pipestone is from minnesota.

We have our own red pipestone in az. In ancient times it was traded up and down the colorado and gila river systems.

Not far from chino valley and out toward the verde river is a claim. I believe they post it now. But back in my day i would go out there and dig it up. It was a bit of work but worth it.
Deep red with white dots sometimes dark lines through it.

One comment i would make about stone pipe making. It's easy to get lost in the beauty of the rock and shape it before you drill your holes. I shaped some beautys only to mess up my holes. Now i rough block it out, drill my holes , then proceed with finish.

We also have an onyx quarry near mayer az. It is honey colored.

 

[moose eater]

Thanks for the info, wolfhoundaddy. I had a nice onyx pipe from Mexico years ago, that looked like a little stone figure wearing a top hat when you stood him up on his bowl end. not huge. I called him 'Stony Brook' back then. not sure where he went to, but I think I recall him getting stolen with a number of other related items I'd left in storage at my mother's in Arizona, courtesy of my (now deceased) brother showing my things to ne'er-do-wells.

paper thorn, Is the pic in post #57 a fossilized mammoth tooth with a part of the jaw bone? (Yes, I'm being serious..)