pipe making

[Beo]

I have read that some Native American Tribes did the Pit Firing, the wood of the long "peace pipes" was usually made from cedar or pine by most tribes across the country.
I use river cane when making my pipe stems, cut it about an inch or two longer than you want, boil it in water until soft then using a coat hanger (or long drill bit) drill or dig out the guts or marrow of the river cane. Let it sit for about 24 hours on a flat surface to dry out and as you smoke it will age and harden real nice.
While I have a longer pipe or "peace pipe" I have only smoked it once as its too long.

Beo,

[hunter63]

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I saw an old kiln while hunting in Missouri that had been used to make the brick for a pre-Civil War Plantation house. Actually there was a couple of them side by side.
It looked real similar to the pic, but had been dug into the side of ravine.
(Yeah I know, I was supposed to be hunting, but I get led astray easily)

This kinda interests me as well.
Good info guys, and to think this thread could have just died with a "Smoking isn't good for you"

[Durtyoleman]

Actually the seminole indians here in florida dry fired many clay pottery items in a normal campfire by burning very hot fires and burying thier pottery directly in the coals of the fire and adding fresh wood to keep it burning hot for a day or more then letting it slowly go out and cool. True it didn't have the clean perfection of modern china but it made servicable items and even if they lost a few items to heat cracks or other flaws..the clay dug from river banks was reasonably easy to aquire.

D.O.M.

[gryffynklm]

DOM, thanks for pointing that out. Thats basically the same method wether its above or in a pit, the objective is to keep enough coals going so the clay remains at a high enough temperature. The earth acts as an insulator and helps reflect the heat back. It will also reduce the amount of fuel used in firing. Tribes located in wetland areas, would have the high water table to deal with.

[gryffynklm]

In a previous post Rick questioned if a clay pipe could be made in your oven. I've been doing some more looking at clay itself. There are several oven baked clays available at Dick Blick art stores.

The link below has several kinds of oven clays. Della Robbia Oven Baked Clay, Laguna oven baked Clay, Sculpey Bake Shop Oven-Bake Clay and Staedtler Fimo Efaplast Microwave Modeling Clay.

The first two from the description may be more ceramic like and I think both the Sculpey and the Fimo clays have a plastic quality.

I did some checking on toxicity for these products and found that they are basically Non toxic because of the children crafting applications. I think that Sculpey has a warning that it is recommended for decoration purposes only not recommended for use with food and smoking applications. I assume that the Fimo product would also have a similar disclaimer.

Without knowing that the toxicity was evaluated with direct contact to burning embers I'd be uncomfortable with smoking from a Pipe made from the last two.

My son is actually considering having a tobacco shop at the renaissance faire In WI and making clay pipes as a demo. So this thread had been intriguing for him. He will likely use one of these clays for his pipe mould making. We need to do more research and experimenting on that. Faire politics may change his mind.

http://www.dickblick.com/categories/ovenbakeclays/