I had originally made this pipe in the mortise and tenon style. I am not sure why. Overwhelmingly, my preferred style is the army mount, or spigot type. It’s faster, hence it’s name, army, and it seems inclined to last longer too.
Making a good tenon without a lathe is a bit of an undertaking, notably if an airtight fit is desired. The original version was unique and had an interesting shape, but it simply didn’t smoke well with the loose fit.
I fussed with it for some time, but while doing so, noticed that I was naturally mangling it into an army style mount, and before ruining it, changed plans. It now works perfectly well with the modification and though not 100% airtight, smokes as if it is.
Once again, walnut proves to make a good pipe wood. But it must be said that it’s not an average piece of walnut and is a sort of in-between mixture of sapwood and heartwood, yet not quite either. Cocobolo, with its density, made a fine bit too, and the piece I selected was a good, solid piece of scrap.
If interested, a video of the crafting process is placed below. It shows the original version.