PIpe breakdown

As I was using the old in-out technique to get the fire going in my Lectura I suddely noticed a drop on my hand which fell from the pipe. Surprised I did a few more in-outs and noted that a minute stream of smoke actually blew sideways out of the tenon / stem part of the pipe.
On closer inspection it turned out that just where the stamping of "340" had been done on my Big Ben Lectura there was a crack about a 3/8 of an inch. it followed the grain and showed only like here when it had become wet with pipe juice.

I brought the pipe back to Brobergs and the nice lady (must find out their names, now that they recognise me) wrote a receipt and assured me they would check it out as soon as "the boss was back" which probably means Monday since we´re in the "Sportlov" holiday season.

Here's how it turned out. I stained it with a mix of dark Jamaican rum and Special Brown Flake which I allowed to simmer in a bowl in a boiling water bath for some ten minutes. After applying three coats and letting them dry in between I waxed the pipe with Carnauba wax applied with a polishing wheel on the Dremel copy.
I heated and bent the stem ever so slightly and decided to use the silver ring to cover the clumsy work I had done on the tenon...

Rustication!

Got the drill from T and went and bought a wooden drill bit 19 mm to perfect a tobacco chamber drill.
K left for the stable early Saturday morning and E had been to a pajama party at one of her friends so I had the kitchen all to myself. Rigged the workshop and drilled away.
Looking at the finished result I decided to try rustication on this pipe. Not that the wood had a lot of flaws, I just felt that the reulting shape needed something else than a smooth finish. I kept a "collar" of smooth wood just underneath the craggy raw surface on top of the plateu since it had a nice straight grain, whereas the rest of the pipe had swirls going hither and dither.
I felt a ting of fear as I let the diamond bit of my Dremel copy dig into the smooth briar, but once the first furrow was done I had no other choice left. I found it hard to "go with the grain" and felt uncertain as to which way to plow the bit through the briar field as there was no marked difference in friction or resistance along the grain which was not very visible...
I remembered having read a tip somewhere that the most common mistake when rusticating was not doing enough. "Do some more" is the general tip. And so I did.