Tamp!

I am normally not big on tampers. In fact, I often find that I have to remind myself when in company to use one!

 But in this case I thought that a tamper would supplement the pipe.

 The tamper has kudu horn as tip, an acrylic black ring and briar at the front.

For a first tamper, not too bad, hey!

My little heaven

I have had a couple requests lately from friends asking to show them what my shop look like. For me it's not the "Shop". This is my little part of heaven. This is where I forget about the worries, stress and problems of living a normal life in a normal world. This is where I loose myself and time disappear.
Enjoy!

Most of my time making pipes is spent here, at this table. From designing and drawings, through to sanding and staining and everything else inbetween. I have my old radio close by, inherited from my aunt and always tuned to a station playing classical, jazz and blues. Files, stem inserts and little bobs and ends for stems on the right. Stains and more bits and pieces in front, along with different grits of sandpaper. On the left bamboo, ebonite rods and more magic potions. Basically all needed for finishing.

I am not very fond of using the term "station". For some reason it reminds me of a factory, and my pipemaking is not at all close to that. I normally work in no apparent order, with a bit of sanding on the disc, then a bit of lathe work, then filing a stem, etc. Basically, I suppose for want of a better word, erratically!

Above photo is where I do most of my machine sanding. On the left is a slack sander with 400 grit belt, used for finish sanding, but before hand sanding. The motor in the middle is for rough shaping with 24 grit and the one on the right for 60 grit and 240 grit. I also have a jacobs chuck attached to this one, which is handy for freehand drilling, countersinking and so on.

 My trusty old lathe and bandsaw.
The lathe is an Emco, which I picked up for dirt cheap. All the attachments, chisels, cutters, chucks and etc thrown together would be worth 10 times more than what I paid for the lathe itself.
The bandsaw is an updated one from the dilapidated one that I started off with, compliments from a good friend who wanted a couple of pipes.

 When I started making pipes, I had a drillpress. And that was the sumtotal of my electric tools. Its amazing what can be done with a single tool if you put your mind to it! Nowadays I of course use it much less, but I can't imagine not having one. There is always something that it'll be used for.
The small bench/beltsander I use for squaring blocks and occasionally for stemwork.

Last but not least: my briar faerie!