Sheet metal smoking pipes

[Cruzatte]

You know.....as for myself, at about $15.00 a copy, (or a little less) I think I'll stick to clays for rendezvous or events at historical sites.

 

[Nativearizonan]

I wonder if they weren't being made more because of shipping losses of clay pipes, rather than an actual demand for sheet metal pipes. I can imagine they lost a lot of clay pipes just during transit to traders on the frontier,.

Hopefully anybody attempting to make one will know better than to use galvanized sheet metal, which is readily available and of a proper thickness; but would give off toxic fumes. Around this group, it's probably not worth mentioning, but you never know who is going to read this stuff.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I'm wondering since I've only seen like three extant examples, and they look like this:


So folks seem to assume these are "tobacco" pipes, but one auction house has this type of item identified as a "bubble" pipe toy, from 1850
https://www.rubylane.com/item/134693-MS--1115/Toy-Tin-Bubble-Pipe-c-1850

I can't find the image of the first one that I saw that was similar in shape, but was fully formed from a rolled piece of tin, and merely bent at the joint..., and it looked like a pipe..., but when inverted, looked like.... a candle snuffer...

Just wondering....

LD

 

[Black Hand]

If soldered, that pretty much removes it from the smoking pipe category...

 

[Cruzatte]

I'm wondering since I've only seen like three extant examples, and they look like this:
View attachment 5826

So folks seem to assume these are "tobacco" pipes, but one auction house has this type of item identified as a "bubble" pipe toy, from 1850
https://www.rubylane.com/item/134693-MS--1115/Toy-Tin-Bubble-Pipe-c-1850

I can't find the image of the first one that I saw that was similar in shape, but was fully formed from a rolled piece of tin, and merely bent at the joint..., and it looked like a pipe..., but when inverted, looked like.... a candle snuffer...

Just wondering....

LD

Yup....looks like a candle snuffer to me.

 

[BillinOregon]

I miss Mike Ameling. I remember those pipes he made. I wonder what gauge steel he used.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

If soldered, that pretty much removes it from the smoking pipe category...

GOOD EYE....I looked right at that joint and completely missed that.

LD

 

[Coot]

Wouldn't a metal smoking pipe get uncomfortably hot to handle/smoke?

 

[spudnut]

View attachment 5734 I quit smoking years ago, but from time to time I do enjoy an occasional cigar or a bowl of tobacco around the camp fire.

I’ve always liked the looks of an antler pipe, but “that smell” of burning antler would be a problem.

So here’s what I came up with, out of shear boredom...

View attachment 5732

I drilled the bowl hole then inserted an aluminum sewing thimble, drilled a small hole in the bottom too allow the smoke thru.
The stem was made from cane, much like the corn cob pipes I smoked as a kid, filled with rabbit tobacco or corn silk.

Not pc/hc in anyway, just a fun project on a rainy Winters day.

I still haven’t tried it out as of yet....

Aluminium cooking vessels have been linked to alzheimers, I hate to think what smoking through it would do

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Aluminium cooking vessels have been linked to alzheimers, I hate to think what smoking through it would do

That's been debunked, the "aluminum link" isn't at all been found to be conclusive, and the aluminum in the cooking vessel use is trivial to other sources of the metal to which people are exposed. For example the Mayo Clinic does not list avoiding aluminum in one's food preparation as one of the preventive measures. They Mayo Clinic does suggest quitting smoking of cigarettes to stave off Alzheimers, and I think the chances of lung or tongue cancer are the threat from smoking any pipe.

LD

 

[smo]

I still haven’t used the pipe , and my never use it.

It was just a rainy day project that I came up with
and happed too have those materials on hand.

I wouldn’t be worried about smoking thru the aluminum bowl
liner, I’m sure it would be better than tasting the antler.

My Mother’s favorite cooking vessels , besides cast iron we’re all aluminum pots...

Plus with my bp addiction and being a retired painter,
I’m far more concerned about lead in my system.

Anyway I’m not a smoker anymore.... I laid them down in Y2K.

I wanted too make sure I quit before the World came too an end. LOL

 

[tenngun]

So far there is not much of a link between pipe and shorter life. You have to be a heavy pipe smoker, five or more bowls a day to show any decrease.
But,
Let’s say you got ALZ from smoking an aluminum pipe, then you would forget to smoke, so would that be a bad thing if you thought pipe smoking was bad?
( Hyperbole and sarcasm aleart)

 

[toot]

I believe the old SEARS&ROEBUCK and BANNERMAN'S catalogues have them, as toys.

 

[spudnut]

Wish I coUld post pics here mine doesnt look like that one,

 

[Cruzatte]

So far there is not much of a link between pipe and shorter life. You have to be a heavy pipe smoker, five or more bowls a day to show any decrease.
But,
Let’s say you got ALZ from smoking an aluminum pipe, then you would forget to smoke, so would that be a bad thing if you thought pipe smoking was bad?
( Hyperbole and sarcasm aleart)

I forget.....Eh....what were we talking about?

 

[BBOB662]

How much is a 1870's CHILD'S TIN TOY SOAP BUBBLE PIPE worth?

 

[Rifleman1776]

Wouldn't a metal smoking pipe get uncomfortably hot to handle/smoke?

As a former pipe smoker, my thought exactly.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I believe that auction house got it wrong. 'bubbly' soap wasn't invented until about 1840 and was not affordable for the mass population at that time. 'bubbly' soap did not make much, if any, appearance in America until about 1940. Many folks still depended on making their own soap from fat and lye.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_bubble

 

[ZionHeritageFarm]

I have plans of making an antler pipe, well did. It never occurred to me about the taste and smell of the antler burning. It is a rather unpleasant smell. My wife won’t even come into my shop when I am cutting or sanding antler, let alone burning it.

 

[spudnut]

Watch out with that antler dust, it can make you VERY sick, always wear a dust mask at least.