This probably can't qualify as a "quality" pipe, but I thought I'd show how little in the way of specialty wood and tools is really required for making a serviceable tobacco pipe. Near the back of my property, there was a dead apple tree that had been "curing" for a number years.
This old dead tree has been a rich source of applewood for fire curing. About 5 years ago, I selected a branch intersection to use for making a pipe. I marked off the centerline for the tobacco hole and the smoke hole with a pencil. I sawed it with a coping saw and drilled the holes, using a hand-held drill with standard bits, held in a Black & Decker clamp table.
After drilling the smoke hole (with a bit size that would just fit into the smoke hole of an existing briar pipe), I measured the diameter of the tenon of a spare pipe bit (from an old, broken, Turkish meerschaum), and sank the mortise, also by hand-held drill. Since I was using a bit designed for a meerschaum pipe, it is anchored using the nylon screw-in piece that came with the Turkish pipe.
All additional work on the wood was done with whittling tools and sandpaper.
This is the completed pipe, prior to staining it with an alcohol-based wood stain from PIMO.
I waxed the exterior with yellow wax, also from PIMO. For inexplicable reasons, I've smoked only Black Cordiale tobacco or Chocolate tobacco in this pipe. After 5 years, this is how it appears (the original bit broke, and was replaced by another from a Turkish meerschaum that had died--usually by accidental fall, though suicide was suspected in one instance).
It's not pretty. Because I feared that the applewood might easily burn through, I intentionally left the walls and floor of the bowl quite thick. As it turns out, the applewood has never even hinted at an attempt to burn through.
Since the branch, which served as the pipe's stem, was less dense, a thin shrinkage split developed in the very bottom edge of the stem, though only part-way through its thickness. This was spackled-in with Carnauba wax from PIMO, and has held perfectly well for years. Although the bit has needed replacement once, the pipe itself has held-up just fine, and is still an excellent smoking pipe.
Bob