The pipe blanks that we sell range in size from great little personal pipes to very nice ceremonial pipes. The 4" ones and bigger will work well for Inipi ceremonies, Sundance Ceremony, or any other ceremony when as many as 8 to 10 people might be smoking it. The 2-1/4", 3", and 4" will work great for personal pipes where you will be using it by yourself or with a friend.

Our 2-1/4" pipe blanks will be about 1-5/8" tall and will come with a beaded 6" redwood stem.
The 3" pipe blanks will be app. 1-3/4" tall and they'll come with a beaded 9" redwood stem.
The 4" pipe blanks will be app 2-3/8" tall and will come with a 12" beaded redwood stem.
The 5" blanks will be about 3" tall and come with a 15" beaded redwood stem. The largest ones that we sell will measure app. 6" long and will be about 3-3/8" tall on average. They'll come with a beaded 18" redwood stem.

**We have temporarily suspended the sale of 5" and 6" red pipe blanks because our stone supply for this size pipes is running low. We apologize for this inconvenience!

If you prefer an unfinished sumac stem that you want to make yourself, we will be happy to make that substitution for you at no charge. You just have to let us know when you're ordering if that's what you prefer.

The stone used for our catlinite pipe blanks is the Sacred Pipestone from the Pipestone National Monument. It is some of the highest quality carving stone available in the world and has been used for centuries by Native Americans to make ceremonial pipes. This stone can easily be carved with a knife or regular wood files.

The stone used for our steatite or black pipestone pipe blanks is a little bit harder to carve than the red. You will find that there are usually some small pyrites in this stone. It can be fairly easy to work through, but for the novice carver, they can be quite annoying. The trick is to keep your file directly centered over the small hard spot and try not to let it slip, or it will "gouge" the softer stone around it. This type of stone has been carved into pipes by Native Americans for literally 1000's of years. It holds up exceptionally well to intense heat. Steatite carves the best using a furrier's rasp or other wood carving files.

The alabaster or white pipestone pipe blanks are softer than either the steatite or catlinite ones. This is nice when it comes to carving, but we have learned from experience that this type of stone does not stand up as well under intense heat, as the other 2 types of stone. A pipe like this, if used for ceremony will likely not survive 100's of years like steatite or catlinite ones do. This type of stone carves best using regular wood files in our opinion.

If you decide to purchase one of our pipe blank/stem combinations we want to see you follow through and complete your pipe. We make ourselves available to answer any questions that might come up while your working on it. We can often provide little helpful hints if you run into a "snag" of any kind.

If you are interested in a pipe blank and have any questions please email us or give us a call.