It takes me at least 12 hours to make one. I have a schedule set up right now so I can get one pipe made a week between work and home life. I am not all that sophisticated and own a lathe like many pipe makers, that would sure make it a whole lot easier to carve one out.
Here is a shot of my bad drilling work on the straight pipe, there is a whole lot of briar on each side and would smoke fine. I am just not pleased with it, I really did not finish the pipe because of it. The shank is not square with the stem either:
I am thinking of a contest now, I will post a link to the contest in this thread.