It’s that time of year again. We’re running low on switch cane reeds for our Pamplin (Civil War era) clay pipe bowls. Because we live too far north to grow this in our back yard, we are appealing to our customers and visitors to contact us if you have a source for these great reeds. This native bamboo species has the right diameter to fit the pipe bowl and it’s hard enough to last a really long time in its capacity as a pipe stem.
So if you are in an area where this reed grows and can get some for us let us know. We will compensate you for your efforts.
Thanks in advance,
Ken
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As someone who live here in South Carolina, and who does reenacting of various time periods, they didn’t use cane reed for the stems of those clay bowls, they used a section of young bamboo. Banboo was common in the South from around 1830′s forwars, it was brought here from Asia to use as errosion control and decoration. I use a section about 6-8″long, and only have to drill through the section ends and then I whittle down the one end going into the pipe. After using the section so much it get saturated I find another young bamboo piece cut it let it dry, and repeat.
Is there any chance that you can send us a few of the bamboo shoots? We’d like to see how they compare the reeds we now have.
Ken
Penn Valley Pipes
2140 Long Creek Rd.
Apalachin, NY 13732
The reed we have is switch cane which is a native bamboo found in the South and Mid-West. The process for preparing the stem is the same as described by Jonny Whiting in his post.
KC