THE MAKING OF A CALABASH PIPE - PAGE 6 OF 8 THE BOWL AND THE CUP

The most important part of every pipe is the bowl; it must be durable to the heat of the burning tobacco and odourless. Finding a suitable bowl for my calabash was a big problem. An option was to order a meerchaum bowl via Internet, from a US maker, but the cost was too hi, including the price, the posting and the customs charges. Another option was to find a man who works with a lathe, to make a bowl of olive or oak wood for me. But I didn't find one. So, I decided to make my own bowl. Being familiar with the briar, as any pipe smoker does, I decided to make a briar one. The bowl of a calabash doesn't always have to be meerschaum, and after all, my 84 years old, antique English calabash, has a bowl made of plastic material !

The remained briar bowl, of the pipe I had already used for the ferrule and the stem, seemed right to start with. The size was right, the grain was fine, there were no fills at all, and the shank was already cut off.

I gave the bowl the desired shape, using a couple of files and grit papers. The bowl must be completely inserted into the gourd, without touching the walls. I filled the existing hole with a piece of briar and a drop of acrylic glue, and I drilled a new hole right in the centre of the bottom.Then I did some reaming inside the bowl, with a sharpened cake reamer, to increase the width and the depth of the chamber. Having already in mind to attach a cup to the bowl, and to reinforce the top of the bowl after the reaming, I decided to use a rim. I cut a strip of tin with a scissors, opened eight holes with a 1mm drill bit, and I mounted it round the top of the bowl, using small bronze nails. I bent the ends of the nails into the wood, and made them flat with a file.

I always liked the silver cups on the old-fashioned calabash, but I also like the rounded, mushroom-like tops of the meerchaum bowls. So, I started to search for a metallic cup, in this shape. The bottom of the above spray can, had the perfect shape and dimensions. I cut the tin bottom with a dented kitchen knife, and I removed the remains of the walls with a file and grit paper.

I made a hole in the middle of the tin cup, equal to the hole of the bowl, about 22mm in diameter, using a drill and a couple of files. I didn't like the sharp edges of the hole, so I started searching for something to cover them. I was lucky to find the bronze ring on the right, almost in the exact diameter of the hole. It is a ring used to reinforce holes on fabric covers of vehicles.

With a little trimming, the ring fitted nicely into the hole of the cap. I soldered it there, by first applying soldering material on both surfaces, and then heating them together with a butane gas soldering iron. I removed the exceeding soldering material, and polished the cup and the ring, using fine steel wool.

I turned the cup and the bowl upside-down, I placed the bowl on the centre of the cup and I pushed it, till the rim touched the cup and the edge of the ring was into the bowl. Then I made sure the bowl was upright and firmly in place.

I soldered the rim on the cup using the butane gas soldering iron and some soldering wire. The thick soldering included the heads of the nails, so the construction proved to be very solid. I also soldered the bent ends of the nails, inside the bowl, to the bronze ring.

I cleaned the surfaces around the soldering with steel wool and ear-tips soaked in pure alcohol, and I trimmed the edge of the ring inside the bowl with a file, to make it more even to the walls of the bowl. The small, less than 0,5mm step, will be covered by the cake, anyway. Finally, I polished the cup a little more with steel wool. I left some "criss-cross" artifacts, existing from manufacture on the surface of the cup, because I think they add a touch of "handmade" and "antique" look. The briar bowl with the metal cup was ready ! <= BACK HOME NEXT =>