A New Stem for My Corncob Pipe!

How I hand carved a tiny olive tree stem for my corncob pipe!

Some time ago I was looking for a cheap pocket-size pipe and I ended up buying an almost basket-pipe. In the pipe shop I also noticed a lovely tiny mini corncob pipe made by Meerschaum of Missouri. I bought it believing it would last a couple of smokes and just for the fun.

It actually surprised me! I can pack a tiny amount of tobacco in it and smoke it for 25 minutes fine! The only defect was that the hole sat too high, so I had to add a bit of pipe cement (firewood ashes and some saliva) to level it up. This will also prevent the bottom of the pipe to burn away.

I have to admit I have a real bad habit. I like to bite hard on pipe stems. It helps me think. My vulcanite stems can stand a hard bite, but the little cheap plastic stem of my corn cob gave in after a few weeks and a deep indentation. It shattered between my lips into sharp pieces and almost wounded me. It serves me right!
So i glued it together to have an example to follow and went out searching for some aged olive wood. I just found a half dead olive tree, so I grabbed a piece of a branch and came home.

I worked with iron files (a large and a small one), small grit sanding paper, a kitchen knife, and a small drill bit. After shaping the pipe stem roughly I drilled the hole using my free hand, and twirled between my thumb and index finger so much that going through an inch and a half of olive wood gave me a nice blister.
I then refined it with the files and the sanding paper, and I am quite proud of the outcome.

The shape is slightly different, but the comfort in my mouth is far greater. The wood feels softer on my teeth and tongue, plus it helps absorb the humidity of the tobacco, giving me a much drier smoke. I found out that this also helps a lot with tongue bite, something such a small pipe inevitably gave me.

I found out that my olive wood pipe and stem (considerably larger and longer) also smokes more comfortable on my tongue, so definitely advise on wood stems. Perhaps they work similarly to the Savinelli Balsa System. They are much more expensive, but provide a much greater smoking pleasure.