Why not find a cool stick in the woods while burning a bowl? Take it home, clean it up and "poof!" A tamper. @Londy3 yeah and take a coke can out of the garbage put a dent in it and poke some holes and "poof" a pipe!
Art, at Ming Kahuna has some fantastic tampers, and his customer service is second to none.....
I really like Ming Tampers I have around twenty of them!
I had an uncle from Kentucky that used his right fore-finger and/or his left pinkie as tampers. I remember the tips were almost black and calloused. Never understood how he could be so impervious to the heat, but there it is... I can almost hear him say, "Tamper?, I don't need no stinkin' tamper!"
I remember once hearing someone singing a folk song about "her lost logger lover" and one of the chorus lines was about how he stirred his coffee with his thumb.
A-Haaaaa! ! ! ! @motie2 -- I had only heard it sung once or twice ever, but that line has stuck with me (along with the one about him buttoning up his vest when the temp drops precipitously).
There is a fellow on ebay, that sells scrimshawed deer antler pipe tampers. I really like the ones scrimshawed with a nautical theme. He goes by brodave2.
I have turned many tampers. My nephew has recently started blacksmithing. I am trying to talk him into making me a tamper out of metal. I think it would be fairly easy.
Tampers were something that as a teenager, I and my friends would make often. Usually made them in the summer when there wasn't much to do but just sit and whittle with a pocket knife. Often gave them away t either family or neighbors who were pipe smokers.
It didn't require much except a piece of wood (usually a tree branch or an old wooden dowel), a pocket knife, and some skill to carve and or shape that stick. If we wanted to add a metal tip, we would use either a nail, a screw, a bullet shell, or a piece of tin that would be hammered and shaped then pinned in place. The other end was carved to a chisel type spoon for cleaning out the ash from the pipe bowl. The were made to be compact or as elaborate as we felt like making. The only cost involved was time.
Today, I use a pipe tool, like many of you do. But from time to time, I will use one of my handmade tampers when I am at home at my desk or working in my shop.
Comments
Art, at Ming Kahuna has some fantastic tampers, and his customer service is second to none.....
http://ming-kahuna.com/index.cfm
@Londy3 yeah and take a coke can out of the garbage put a dent in it and poke some holes and "poof" a pipe!
Art, at Ming Kahuna has some fantastic tampers, and his customer service is second to none.....
I really like Ming Tampers I have around twenty of them!
Tampers and pipes for sale, featuring, for example:
Edit: Mea culpa.... I have apologized to @PappyJoe. I meant no disrespect.
There is a fellow on ebay, that sells scrimshawed deer antler pipe tampers. I really like the ones scrimshawed with a nautical theme. He goes by brodave2.
http://stores.ebay.com/DAVES-BONEYARD-FOSSIL-REPLICAS/SCRIMSHAW-PIPE-TAMPERS-/_i.html?_fsub=2206514016&_sid=23790106&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
It didn't require much except a piece of wood (usually a tree branch or an old wooden dowel), a pocket knife, and some skill to carve and or shape that stick. If we wanted to add a metal tip, we would use either a nail, a screw, a bullet shell, or a piece of tin that would be hammered and shaped then pinned in place. The other end was carved to a chisel type spoon for cleaning out the ash from the pipe bowl. The were made to be compact or as elaborate as we felt like making. The only cost involved was time.
Today, I use a pipe tool, like many of you do. But from time to time, I will use one of my handmade tampers when I am at home at my desk or working in my shop.