Tinder Box
Auckland,
New Zealand
PIPE MAKING DEMONSTRATION
Clay to Smoking
Pipe.
A visiting living history resource for museums through the demonstration
of the pipe making craft
Home Clay
Pipe Store Butter Making Victorian Toys "Food"
for Thought Pioneer Transport
Rag Rug Pole Lathe Spinning Shave
Horse Work
Fire Making Information request School visits
Learn how to make a clay smoking pipe.
Watch and discuss pipe making with the Tinder Box pipe maker
as clay is rolled and put into a mold, compressed by the
gin press and formed into clay pipes. Book a demonstration of
traditional clay pipe making
for your venue and learn about pipes, pipe making history
and see them made. Where can you buy a clay
pipe? visit the store Were pipes made in New Zealand?
What happened when the stem of your pipe broke? Brown and Campbell
advertised 5 cases of pipes; large bowl, for sale
by auction in The New Zealander newspaper, 7th of
March edition in 1847. Who were these 'large bowl ' pipes for?
Why were two sizes imported into New
Zealand? Learn a little about tobacco in Pioneer New Zealand.
Information
request
The author
making pipes
Clay smoking
pipes - the Process.
Introduction
My interest is in the history
of clay pipe manufacture and traditional method of pipe
making by gin press, and hand pressing methods and also slip
casting, which is a different process, and, yes, I do make pipes for sale - visit
the Tinder Box Clay Pipe Store.
Since the process of pipe making is no longer
carried on commercially, I have had to research the process
and build my own equipment. The process has proved rewarding, but
the path was not easy. I was attracted by the challenge of making
a hollow stemmed article with such a fine bore and it is fair to
say that the church warden pipe caught my eye as a challenge! How
did they do it I wondered! Since my interest extends to all things
Victorian, it fitted in well with my other passions, besom broom making and pole lathe work. I brought to the process
the knowledge of a potter, the ability of an amateur carpenter,
a degree of a lateral thought, the willingness to learn - the
last, in my experience sets one half way to success, that and patience.
My first attempts were at hand
- pressing with a wooden two piece mold of
my own construction and a vice. What I learned was
this: Quite heavy pressure is required to press clay
into a mold! The mold needs point(s) of escape for excess clay.
There has been conjecture about the origin of the spur - the
protrusion below the bowl of the pipe. I found, in hand-pressing
- it was necessary to have a vent to release the excess clay
beneath the bowl - which leaves a spur - this vent served
this function very well. It seems to me that the spur remains a
hangover from the first hand pressed pipes, before the advent of
the Gin press.
Richard
Lees 16/7/2004
Clay preparation for clay
smoking pipes.
The process of making clay pipes
begins with the acquisition or preparation of a good clay.
Historically the preparation of clay for smoking pipes, unlike
pottery clay preparation was not done with pug mills. The clay
for clay pipes was processed in small volume and once the
obvious impurities (stones twigs etc.) had been removed the clay
was broken down with iron bars, slaked, part dried and worked up
into a good consistency.
Today prepared clays are readily
available from pottery suppliers and these have the advantage
of being impurity free, having a known firing temperature, the
desired fired colour and scientifically tested so that warpage and distortion
is unlikely. Prepared clay comes in plastic bags of about 20
to 25 kilograms weight. If you are considering making pipes
ascertain from the clay supplier, the firing temperature
range and ask to see a fired sample to ascertain the colour of
the fired clay. You will probably want a white earthenware clay
that fires to about 1100C, but do not disregard terracotta, this gives
a reddish brown pipe and certainly pipes were made in this clay too. Traditionally
pipes were fired at approximately 900C, 1650F. But there are reasons
you might want to have a higher firing clay. More about firing later.
I have found – as a potter, that
purchasing clay from a supplier is the easiest way to acquire
clay for the making of my “clays” as clay pipes are called.
This is not to say that preparing a local clay is not possible
or indeed enjoyable, but I would advise the beginner to start
with proven materials and lessen the chances of failure. I
make my Pakuranga Toasties from 'out of the ground clay' - not bought clay
and you can buy these at my clay
pipe store and read my Pakuranga toastie story. I also use a
potter's white earthen ware in the same mold - learn about clay shrinkage
- not all clay is created equal!
The Gin Press: a tool
for making clay smoking pipes
In the gin press method of pipe
making, pipes are pressed in a two- piece mold using a
gin press. The word ‘gin’ is defined as: hoisting apparatus,
kind of crane or windlass, machine for separating cotton from
its seeds, a device.
The gin press is a lever device that
applies pressure into the clay in the mold through
a stopper. I have built two gin presses; a gin press is not
a difficult to build. If you are aiming for authenticity, the
most difficult part is constructing the vice that will clamp the
two parts of the mmold together. Alignment of stopper,
mold and vice is critical to the satisfactory production of a pipe;
get it wrong and the stopper will wear your mold
