I'm actually smoking on mine right now. It's just a simple little pipe. Turned from a branch of that maple I planted (there's a thread around here somewhere 'bout it).
The bowl itself is live edge, but 90 degrees to what a normal live edge bowl is. The bark is on the side of the bowl, not the top. It was turned from an entire branch, obviously. I believe the opening of the bowl is 7/8", as I have a nasty habit of finishing off cigars in the pipe.
I turned the bowl branch true, leaving some fairly true bark for the side of the bowl. I drill a... ummmm.... lets say 1/4" hole in the side, using a depth gauge to go just a bit past center. Then I put a tenon on the bottom of the bowl, and mount that in the chuck (pin jaws). I drilled out the bowl with a 7/8" forstner, stopping when the side hole starts spewing stuff. I then continue the bowl hole until it's about 1/2 the way through the side hole. I flip the bowl over onto a jam chuck, which is basically another part of the branch turned down to be a dowel that fits snugly (with paper towel) in the bowl. I can then finish the bottom of the bowl, leaving enough meat so the heat won't do much damage. Same with the rest of the bowl, I tried to leave at least 1/4", but tried for 3/8" of meat to help absorb the heat.
The neck of the stem is just, again, another length of the same branch, turned spindle wise this time. I believe I turned it true, drilled out the middle (the actual mouthpiece is from a $2 corncob pipe, it's the only thing on those pipes that lasts more than 3 minutes, so the center drill is the size of the tenon on the mouthpiece.), and then turned the tenon to match the mortise in the bowl. It would be very easy to turn this just like a pen, using the spindle.
I believe I just used a touch of mineral oil/ beeswax on the outside, and a standard salt/rum 24 hour conditioning on the inside. I wanted a food safe finish on the outside, as it will be near my mouth, and I'm not sure what other finishes will do when heated.
All the joinery is interference fit, but after a while, I had to add a dab of wood glue to the stem/bowl joint. I also could have taken a little time with some carving chisels to make it sit flush, but I didn't. I really consider this a nice disposable pipe, I have plenty of small maple stock laying around to make more. In fact, I'm going to be making another one, also live edge, but with the bark line on top, as a xmas gift.
It's not a super hard wood like briarwood, so I know it will eventually burn/ crack through. But I have been using this one for about 2 months now, a few smokes a day on it, and it's a champ. The maple maple does tend to add a bit of a sweet taste, I think. Might be imagining it.
My next (not replacing this one) pipe will be a solid briarwood, with a nice long churchwarden stem. I'm also planning on doing a smaller thicker stem, ie Sherlock holmes. There's some bent lamination and steam bending techniques I'm going to try.
As I said, it's nothing beautiful, but it sure works.
EDIT: I can't win, each time I spin the photo, it still comes up wonky.