Mesquite Revisited!

[CedarSlayer]

The wood I really like to use is mesquite. It is a self replenishing, invasive, native to my area. It would also be quite a task to endanger the stuff.

Most properties in my area would be improved by it's removal. It is also the most stable wood in the world. Harder than oak, and very wear resistant.

I have used the rustic poker in the pic over a hundred times, and if I bother to clean it out, you would be hard put to tell if it has ever been near heat.



A thinner walled pipe will show some heat effects. Mesquite conducts heat well, so with a nice thick wall the heat will spread an it will tend to resist charring.

I read somewhere a few years back that in the early days, Texas exported quite a bit of mesquite root to China and at the time the Chinese considered it the best wood for making smoking pipes out of. I have been trying to find that reference again, but I have quite a collection of books, papers, and article on the properties of wood, so It may take me a while to find it again.

To stave off the inevitable BBQ references, I will admit to using my scraps of wood for just such a purpose. But only when I am out of old rotted willow root. Seriously, after you have tasted meat grilled with old willow root, you won't consider any other wood to be in the running. Not even mesquite.

Bob

[TimGeorge]

Thanks for the thoughts on mesquite, especially the idea that maybe the walls should be a little thicker. I am in Texas myself and have a few blocks prepared but have not yet made a pipe. I do know that there is at least one maker, Dana Busa, who uses mesquite a lot. Here is a link to one of those:

http://www.smokershaven.com/danabusapipebentapple.aspx

[CedarSlayer]

I have not managed to obtain any mesquite root to work with, but I am working on trying to find a bit to try out. It is entirely possible that variety may also have a strong effect on the thermal properties of this wood. I have some mesquite that seems pretty well fire proof and other mesquite that chars nicely like you would expect a normal pipe to. One of my mesquite pipes seems to need a 4 day rotation period to keep it sweet.

I am tempted to try boiling some mesquite to see how that alters the behavior. I have not seen any real reason to remove the resins from the mesquite so far, mesquite seems to breath despite the resins and does not seem prone to cracking or checking due to resins expanding. This is not what I would expect considering that a reasonable percentage of mesquite blocks have hidden flaws in the grain that only show up and split when you are near finishing a piece.

I did a bit of searching on Dana's pipes. he has done some superb work. Thanks for the link, Tim!

Bob