Hedgeapple, I made one for the hell of it, that I saw used quite a bit, when I was in the Army in the 60's. They would take a .308, and and .556/223 shell, and make a pipe out of them. The would cut the neck of the..308 about a 1/4 to 3/8' down from the shoulders, and then they would take the .223, and near the base they would drill a hole in one side of the case, the size of the neck of the .308 and insert the inverted neck and shoulders of the .308, and silver solder it in place, and wallah, a pipe. Man you could use a 20mm and a Fifty cal, and you could have a communal pipe......
They would sometimes get one of the motor pool guys to get them some gas line filter brass mesh screen, and they would line the bottom of the pipe bowl with that, and they would put......uh......stuff
......in the bowl, and light it, and smoke it.
The necked down part of the .223 was the mouth piece, or you could insert a carved piece, depending on how fancy you wanted to get. The stuff.....some was blond, some was real dark....some stuff had stems and leaves and sometimes seeds
......I guess it was a ceremonial type of pipe, because one of the guys was a full Sioux, and after smoking one of those little pipes, he would turn the small trash can over and sit on his bed, with his legs crossed, and tap the bottom of the little trash can, and sit there with his eyes closed, and sing native songs, in the Sioux language. Of course GI's being GI's could not let him sing alone, so they too after a little pipe smoking, would sit around, tapping on the trash, can, or what ever they could find, and sing along. Not exactly the same words......
I think some of the ......stuff
......I saw going into those little pipes would definitely make you see visions......
I have made corn cob pipes when I was a little kid, and made a little one out of a betel nut palm/Arricca palm seed kernel. I don't smoke now, so I don't have any pipes any more.
Notice: This is not intended to induce anyone to run out and try to make any of these pipes. It is purely intended for informative and entertainment value only......
Honest !
Wayne