Sometimes we just get lucky

[staffwalker]

This is also a peice of PME Algerian wood, the c grade can't remember what it is called but second best grade, rather fine birdseye. bob

[e Markle]

I was just browsing for some old info, and I came across this. Yep, it's still as nauseating as the first time I saw it.

Hope this helps™
EM

[d.huber]

Yup. That's ridiculous.

[Bryan Johnson]

Okay, I've been lurking and listening to you guys talk, so now I have to ask: How do you judge the potential of a raw piece of briar? If the grain looks similar on both sides of a block, does that increase the odds of it being the same throughout the block? Or is it always a crapshoot?

Also, are grades from places like Greece not as good as Algerian any more because of over-harvesting? Poor harvesting technques? I heard someone mention sorting -- are we at the mercy of the seller when ordering wholesale or semi-wholesale by mail/Internet?

I'm still in the kit stage, so I expect by blocks to be Grade 3 (which is all I really deserve, considering my skill level), but if/when I graduate to working from an original block, just how do I judge what to look for before I put in all that effort?

Or is all this covered in another thread? Thanks in advance for your advice.

[d.huber]

Hope this helps™
EM

Oh snap! Ernie trademarked Rad's slogan!

Wait, does this mean we owe you royalties now?

[d.huber]

Okay, I've been lurking and listening to you guys talk, so now I have to ask: How do you judge the potential of a raw piece of briar? If the grain looks similar on both sides of a block, does that increase the odds of it being the same throughout the block? Or is it always a crapshoot?

Also, are grades from places like Greece not as good as Algerian any more because of over-harvesting? Poor harvesting technques? I heard someone mention sorting -- are we at the mercy of the seller when ordering wholesale or semi-wholesale by mail/Internet?

I'm still in the kit stage, so I expect by blocks to be Grade 3 (which is all I really deserve, considering my skill level), but if/when I graduate to working from an original block, just how do I judge what to look for before I put in all that effort?

Or is all this covered in another thread? Thanks in advance for your advice.

I don't have enough experience to give a good answer here, but I'll relate my experience so far. When you pick up a raw block, you have to analyze the grain from all sides to get an idea of what it might be doing inside the block. I've often been pleasantly surprised by the grain of a block once I cut into it, but that isn't always the case. I think the most challenging thing is learning how likely a block will be to deliver the best grain for your chosen shape then working with the grain of the block to get a shape as close to the one you had in mind as possible. I'm still working on all of this and, honestly, I think you can see in my work that I need to get better at utilizing the grain in my shapes.

Hopefully a professor will jump in. They're great resources on this subject.

[Sasquatch]

Each vendor has strengths and weaknesses. A new pipe maker needs briar, and that's all there is to it. Get some blocks from somewhere, make some pipes, have some fun. You aren't gonna make a pipe that sells for 500 dollars right off the bat, so having "perfect briar"* doesn't matter.

Once you are making pipes that people seem to want to buy, you can start to make better and better decisions about what block to use, what orientation the pipe needs to be. This is just an experience thing. Also, if you can pick from 50 blocks, your chances of getting the "right" block for what you want to do is way higher than if you are picking from 5 blocks, which is what most beginners are doing.

Head on, here's two blocks -



Paid the same for both, both out of the same package probably. The one on the right is cut with basically vertical grain, the one on the left is at 35 degrees. So to get a pipe oriented with the grain on the left block, I need to position it "crooked" in the block (or re-cut the block) as opposed to the block on the right. However, if I'm doing an asymmetric shape, the block on the left might actually work better - I might be able to have big slabs of birdseye and big slabs of straight grain. The block can do the talking.

So a guy approaches the wood probably with a pipe in mind, and finds a block that will do what he wants done with a little convincing. It takes some practice.

At some point, you are drawing rough pipe shapes on blocks trying to assess what the grain is going to do - this requires a 3d visualization, and you can't see into the block anyhow, so there's some surprises as you shape. That's life.



Could these blocks take other shapes? Hell yeah. Flip a calabash upside down and it's a volcano. Whatever.



In terms of the wood itself, each vendor has strengths and weaknesses, and these again will be seen relative to what a guy is trying to accomplish. Great sandblasts are not a random occurence. Softer wood with regular grain is going to yield a better blast that rock hard wood with random grain. In probably 300 blocks.... I've had about 4 that I cut and just threw away because I didn't like the smell of, or because they looked badly cured (pink resin running after drilling the chamber = bad). The rest of the wood I've gotten from Spain, Algeria, Italy and Greece has made perfectly acceptable smoking pipes. I will happily manufacture pipes from all the people I buy from. They are not "equal" though. Each vendor has strengths and weaknesses, as I said, and you will eventually wind up matching your product to a vendor's product.

I could lay out my opinion of each in terms of grain, cut, flaws (small), flaws (big), hardness, density, dryness, cost etc but I'm not even sure how helpful that would be. I think the best thing to do is buy a half dozen blocks from various vendors and see what you find. Other guys will offer stronger opinions positive and negative.

[Bryan Johnson]

Thanks to both of you. I have about 9 kits (bought in three batches, from three different dealers who also sell blocks). Ordered them when the prices looked good. I've only finished (i.e., done as much damage to them as they could bear) two of them, but I'll try to "read" the others before I start them and see if what I think they're going to look like ends up with what the result shows. Although I don't have any control on where the chamber is drilled in a kit, I can control, to some degree, the shape of the pipe. Should be good practice.

I can't conceive of charging anything for any of my pipes, let alone $500. I'm just making pipes because it's good for the soul to do somethng concrete, other than put words on paper (or the Internet). Shoot, most of my articles don't sell for $500. Besides, even with just two pipes under my belt, I've gained a much larger appreciation for the pipes I own -- I can see better how they were made and see the skill that went into them.

[ajpl]

All this beautiful briar in one place is hurting my eyes. Especially those first two, Jeff.

edit:

I'm just making pipes because it's good for the soul to do somethng concrete, other than put words on paper (or the Internet).

As an aspiring (read: unpaid) writer, this exactly captures what I'm feeling just starting out at this whole pipemaking thing. There's something really fulfilling about making something with your hands that's completely unlike weaving a good narrative.