Photoset with 17 notes
Starting with coarse sand-paper covered disks and moving to very fine paper to shape the pipe.
I make a pipe when I go up to visit and I can tell you this is hard to do well. And keeping the thing symmetrical seems impossible for me. Lastly, on occasion, I would catch the spinning wheel wrong and send the pipe across the room.
After proceeding thru a number of sanding disks the pipes are then polished on several cotton polishing wheels. While the wheels are spinning polishes are applied. The first contains a heavy grit to remove any sanding marks. Subsequent wheels have finer and finer grit until the last wheel to which is applied a bit of carnauba wax for a high luster.
It seems it is not until the polishing that you know the real quality of the pipe. The pipe may go thru a couple grinding and shaping steps and be perfect, but at any time you may grind down to large pit hidden in the briar and the thing becomes fuel for the wood stove. Also, dyed pipes are corked, dipped and dried prior to polishing. This brings out the grain like shellac on an oak table. Various amounts of polishing can help accentuate the grain as well.
Source: chrischapmanphotography.net