How do you carve the bowl of a tobacco pipe?

Question

How would I carve the bowl portion? I'm making a tobacco pipe out of an oak root I found. I already cut and carved the head shape, but I don't know how I'm going to make the bowl. Should I use my knife to dig it out? Or should I use a drill and slowly make enough holes and dig that out?

Answer 1

You should have a curved chisel in your toolbox, if you don't, get one. :-)

X-Acto has a set of carving tools that will do this too. One is like a loop or a question mark ----> ? with a blade on the curved part, perfect for getting into deep recesses like this.

You can use a drill to remove the majority of the material, but you run the risk of drilling all the way through or splitting the wood. Just rough it out and use the right bits to finish it off.

Answer 2

are you makin this pipe to smoke weed? haha well oak is not a good wood first off it burns too easy... but if u wanna try more power to u . in pipe making they take a drill and bore it out and they take a fine drill bit to bore to the smoking bowl. from the shaft or w/e its called i dont remember. and u should be good to go but if u plan to sand it id use a 220 grit sandpaper

Answer 3

I don't think you will like smoking oak.  If you can get a wild cherry tree, cut it down, dry it, and make one out of that.  Those are good smokers.