odd crack

[Fr_Tom]

Greetings all... I have an odd longitudinal crack which I have never seen before on the stem of a pipe. Has anyone seen anything like this before? The photo was the best I could do with the phone, but I think you can see it. Thanks ~ Tom

 

[Anonymous]

That is strange. It doesn't run with the grain like you'd expect. I'd have to think a stress in the drilling that finally made it to the surface. Maybe an imbedded bit of rock or material in the wood or failing to clean the drill when needed. Just a guess.

 

[docwatson]

Yes, I have seen that before. Smoke it til it breaks through is all I can say.

 

[Fr_Tom]

Smoking it until it won't smoke any more would be my inclination. This is a curious thing though.

 

[monbla256]

I have a BBB Lovat that developed a crack similar to that on the shank. That was over 30 years ago and I'm still smoking it and it's still cracked the same. Go figure :twisted:

 

[monbla256]

As I said above :twisted:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I believe it's a swelling crack. From one pipe I already retired and a few stories around BoB, often cracks like that start to surface due to expansion from the inside-out--because of moisture. It could be where the tenon ends in the mortise, and if a little post-smoking moisture gets trapped for long periods of time between the mortise walls and some space around the tenon, this can be the result. On my one neat old estate pipe, the tenon was ever-so-slightly narrower at the tip, and that's where the moisture settled. It could be a place where moisture simply collected naturally, or from a botched drilling attempt that was later corrected. Briar being a natural product, there could also be a sand pit or some other blemish internally where it is weak, and again...collecting moisture. Not all briar pieces are as dense or robust, to boot. So it could be one thing or a culmination of things.

One way or the other, smoke it until it dies. That's what it would want. :lol: It may last just as long as any other pipe--who knows? If what is happening is what I suspect, let it dry out a little longer than normal. It might help. <img class="emojione" alt="?" title=":shrug:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f937.png?v=2.2.7"/>

8)

 

[KevinM]

Puzzling. My .02 is that trying to "fix it" would likely be the quickest way to make it worse.