You've nearly completed your pipe bowl and all that is left is to wax it!
There are several ways that you can heat up the pipe to do this. You can put
the pipe on an old cookie sheet (or a new one lined with tin foil) and place it
in the oven at about 250 degrees, (for 20 minutes or so) or you can place it in
a pan like the one in the photo and put it on the stove on medium heat. On a
hot summer day, you may even be able to heat the pipe bowl up by placing it
outside in the sun.
Once the pipe is hot enough that the beeswax melts on contact with it, you're
ready to go. Take your beeswax and melt it over the entire pipe. You will want
to have an old rag to hold the pipe, as the pipe bowl will be very hot. Once
you've done a few pipes, if you use that same rag, it will soon become
impregnated with the beeswax and that's when it will work the best. You can use
this rag to help evenly distribute the wax.
When the pipe bowl is completely covered and red, remove it from the heat source
and place it in a sink or a bucket of cold water. This is done to cool the pipe
off. If you like, you can also let it cool naturally by just letting it set on
a counter. (This is especially a good idea if you're working with any type of
stone other than high quality Sacred Catlinite) Many types of stone simply
can't withstand a plunge into very cold water after being heated up to a high
temperature.
Once the pipe is cooled off, you can dry it off with a towel (if you've placed
it in water) and using your fingernail or an old credit card, you can remove any
excess wax. Simply scrape it off and the pipe will really start to take on a
good shine. Once all of the excess wax is removed, you can shine your pipe up
with a soft cloth.
Once you've completed this step, your pipe should look similar to the pipe shown
in the last photo.
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