Airway Assistance?

and 1 al pascia, and some misc stuff....

I could do some measurements, you only want the diameter at the end of the stem that goes into the rest of the pipe ?

I'd guess 2 mm.... need to find my tools to do measurements

All are drilled between 7/64 and 1/8. All look like drilled by a tapered bit. Ser Jacopo has the exemplary stem with the nice cone at the entry in the tenon, then it starts from 5/32-11/64 and goes down to 7/64-1/8. Cute flute in the bit. The smoke channel in the shank is drilled by 5/32-11/64 (a little bit narrower than the hole in the stem).

Chris,

Don't know if this will help, but the pics below are pics of my Stanwell Zebrano Bulldog #32.

not very clear as to what I am trying to find out. Mastro de Paja and Ser Jacopo are hand made so I am not surprised that they are using a 4mm tapered bit. Savinelli, not sure, but they do hand mades for their better lines while the low end is manufactured.

Stanwell I believe are all manufactured but I guess they could have a hand made line also.

For the past two years all my stems have been hand cut. It is a fair amount of work that takes me around 3 hours or longer. If done properly a hand cut stem can add $50-100 to the cost of a pipe but it also has to do with the rep of the pipe maker as well, in which case it could be more.

I thought that using pre-fab bits would help keep the cost of a pipe down. I tried some Giudici bits which are very beefy. There is enough meat on them that they can accomodate a 4mm tapered drill bit and have enough left over to shape it properly without going through to the airway. The downside is they are so beefy, you still have to cut the tenon, sizing the stem can mean removing 3-5mm and the shank end and then shaping it all the way down to the bit in proportion. To me it is as much work as taking a length of rod and making it from scratch and they do not have as high a density as ebonite.

The bits that I just picked up are closer to final proportion. As seen in the photo there is no way they can handle having the airway opened up to 4mm. So what I am trying to find out how pipe manufacturers use these.

Do they use them as is? I have been told the reduced airway is to keep the volume of air entering the pipe low so as to not let the smoker draw so much in that the pipe overheats. Do they open them, but not to a full 4mm? Seems like a logical compromise, more open but not really fully open. Then to make things more confusing is personal preference. Some like a tighter draw while others like a very open draw.

There, I now am probably less clear than before.

My Savinelli that I've measured was from their Naturals (but thank you). The only hand made part there was stuffing putty into caverns.

I don't have it with me at the moment to check and I was too much of a mess yesterday to pay more attention but I think the profile of the smoke channel in the Savinelli is not circular but rather an oval, especially near the bit. Can they be casted in a mold with such channel? Or this can be done relatively easily, say two thin channels are drilled in parallel and so force? Remember, both my hands are left and the last time I had deal with some serious tools was exactly 20 years ago.

The problem is I'm not sure did I work with this particular Savinelli's stem or not? Now I remember that I actually did a lot of work with the Mastra de Paja stem to open it, so scratch that.

I would break out the drill bits and my Stanwells, but my tools are inaccessible in my current living arrangement.

Hard to tell by those photos. Need to get a drill bit to gauge it.

Misha,
Is this the Mastra de Paja your thinking of? It was tight.

What may not be obvious is how opening a bit up effects the volume of smoke allowed into the airway. Taking the standard diameter of a stock stem 7/64 (2.78mm) gives an area of 5.75 sq. mm. If the airway is expanded to 5/32 (4mm), just 1.12 millimeters more, roughly a 40% increase the area of the airway is 12.57mm about 120% increase in volume as the area of a circle grows exponentially. A little bit goes a long way and makes a big difference in the draught.

Yes, Chris, that's the one, I guess I was really sleepy yesterday. Funny thing, i0t's one year already but I still remember the faint ghost of Latakia when I smoked this pipe first few times.

This whole problem is the reason why I am quite wary with regard to manufactured pipes with saddled stems. If the channel is too tight there is not much I could do to open it without risking to screw the stem up. I've seen quite a few times how smoking qualities drastically improve when the draw is open (maybe not very open but in any case not tight). I have one Savinelli's Hungarian with saddled stem with pretty tight channel. What I did was I straightened the stem and while it was hot pushed the round file (small one, of course) into the stem. Surely, it made an ugly bump near the bit but it's really small and I think it could be somehow worked out but the pipe itself is not a princess either. Importantly it became much better smoker. Not sure, though, it would work for a better pipe.

It would be great to find a simple technological solution. Is it possible to simplify widening of the channel? A special bit? Or a thin file?

Even going from 7/32 to 1/8 increases the area by 30%. It is noticeable. Cannot say for everyone, but for me it always works the same way - easier draw means less bite.

why I have not just stuck a prefab into a block of wood to see for myself. Well I did, it was my new fishing pipe. All the smaller diameter did was make me suck harder which I found uncomfortable. I bored it out and split it. Did another and a light sanding for shaping and it went through. So I put the split out one back in. It is split but doesn't leak. Except for my twin-bore my pipes are all 9/64-5/32 and possible there may be a 11/64. It is what I am used to and I do not seem to be able to adjust to a smaller diameter, at least not to 7/64. I suppose if I gradually decreased I could but right now it is like leaping off a cliff. I don't think I am odd, it makes me wonder about a few things. How many have a tighter draw? How many prefer a tighter draw?

It is pretty obvious that a 5/32 opening on these stems is out and I don't think I will have much more success with 9/64 and when I drop to an eighth I think, for me, it is too tight and I am not opening it enough.

The straight taper bits may be able to go 5/32 but saddles are out unless I keep it back an inch and a half from the bit (i.e. as you said widen and deepen the channel). That far back and the funnel is going to have to go a heck of a long way which is a lot of drilling out and filing.