Carving my own pipe project

[thebayratt]

A few months ago, I got a straight shanked predrilled briar block from www.pipesandcigars.com . I had set it aside due to a few projects already in the works. But finally, I got a chance to work on it.

It started as this:



Drew a few sketches out on paper and decided on a general plan of carving and sanding the briar. Then drew out the "plan" onto the block. Making sure to give enough room to not take out too much briar and cause a burnout.







I roughed out the lines with a handsaw giving me room for sanding and tweeking the shape.
Then my buddy who has a very nice shop got a new benchtop belt/disc sander for his carpentry job and for carving pipes as well. So today, we broke it in and I went to town on the briar and came up with this:



I had wanted a straighter bowl, but once into the sanding, I realized I like the tapered look to it to give an ergonomic feal to it. I had also wanted it to be a sitter that would have the stem raised up off the surface, but that didn't turn out in the sandings.

After that, I sanded it with 120, 200, then 400 grit sand paper to make it baby butt smooth. Its got a few imperfections, but its a learning process. It feals really good in the hands and I hope for it to smoke well. I'll post more pics as I progress.

Question: Can I use regular wood stain, or is the alcohol based stain better to use for pipes?