goemon's kiseru
august 2010
Goemon is a video game series revolving around the main character, Goemon, and his exploits. He primarily uses a variety of kiseru, a Japanese smoking pipe, as his weapon of choice.
Goemon is a video game series revolving around the main character, Goemon, and his exploits. He primarily uses a variety of kiseru, a Japanese smoking pipe, as his weapon of choice.
I was commissioned to make Goemon’s kiseru, a traditional smooking pipe, from the Goemon video game series. At the client’s request, it would be 48″ long.
For the mouthpiece of the pipe, I was able to find a wooden finial the right size and checked it to my lathe for modification.
Since the lathe was occupied, I attached a disk of MDF to a drum sander attachment spindle.
I was able to round the edges of the disk by spinning it with a hand drill and used sandpaper to shape the piece.
The finial’s ball was flattened slightly and I scribed a line for separating the ball portion.
The finial ball and disk glued together over a threaded mounting rod.
The head of the pipe was constructed by glueing together many sheets of pine and shaping on the lathe. I cut off the top of the bowl so I could re-attach it to the lathe to hollow it out.
I flattened one side of the head to mount to the shaft.
I made a collar out of MDF on the lathe.
I used a threaded rod and wooden dowels to attach the collar to the shaft.
The collar attached to the head with the threaded rod exposed to attach to the shaft.
I used a 4″ x 4″ to make the shaft. Here I’m starting to knock off all the corners.
The finished shaft.
The mouthpiece attached to the shaft.
I attached the rim of the bowl to the lathe and hollowed out a gentle bowl shape.
The bowl rim re-attached to the head.
I forgot to make the hole in the mouthpiece so I had to drill it and hand smooth the edges.
The final painted pipe. I used a brush to apply the paint so the paint has a brushed metal appearance.