Beautiful work, but inhaling the silica, talc, and magnesium at high temp is probably not advisable for your lungs. I know soapstone has been used for pipes and cookware for tens of thousands of years, but please be safe.
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No worries, it is only decoration nowadays XD
Briar root wood is used by pipe makers around the world as it's very resistant to fire. The grain of it is also very beautiful. Maybe you could experiment with that, plenty of pipe making tutorials around : artisans are tying to pass on the knowledge to a new generation of craftsman I think.
Oh and you can also do it with corn, look up Missouri Merschaum on the internet for corn cob pipes: you could also have fun applying this technique
But you need propane or some other clean gas, candles and butane have nasty particulates and tar inside (the bottom literally gets black) that you dont want to inhale ;)
My dad says butane is a bastard gas
OK, Bobby...
Awesome pipes. It would be cool if you could carve a larger soapstone into a case for the pipe, similar to a case for a pair of glasses. You could use small magnets to keep it shut too.
Soapstone is too brittle, so it would need to be really thick.
But nice idea indeed ;)