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This is my first time working with strawberry briar. I know they are known to have lots of inclusions. Is the "flaw" shown in the bottom of my chamber a legit flaw or just a darker area in the wood. It's a bit weird, as it's obviously different than the rest, but up close it doesn't seem like flaw in regular briar, but more so just a spot that is different in color. Sorry I can't really explain it any better. Anyway, this thing has some insane ring grain.

You will find out when you blast it.

Sometimes the dark spots are just areas of darker wood and when you blast them they behave in the same way as the rest of the wood. Sometimes they are harder, which is nice because you get an interesting feature. Sometimes though they are soft and you blow a hole clean through the pipe.

The same happens with Morta FWIW, but in a slightly more predictable way.

If I get odd looking inclusions in wood, any pipe making wood, then I tend to finish the rough shaping but don't bother with stem work etc. I set the stummel aside and when I am running the sandblaster I hit that area and see what happens. If it's all good then I carry on with the pipe, if something goes bad then I haven't wasted too much time.

Yeah, predict a blowout, not from my vast experience with strawberry, but with other woods, apple etc that dark heartwood material is softer..... so, like Chris suggests, touch it with the blaster or pick at it a bit and see if it falls apart. I sure don't like "flaws" that run right through the bowl wall, in general.

Sasquatch wrote:Yeah, predict a blowout, not from my vast experience with strawberry, but with other woods, apple etc that dark heartwood material is softer..... so, like Chris suggests, touch it with the blaster or pick at it a bit and see if it falls apart. I sure don't like "flaws" that run right through the bowl wall, in general.

That's what I was thinking as well, unfortunately. But that's what had me perplexed is that that darker spot actually seems harder than everything else. I've never worked with strawberry before, so I didn't know if this was a common ordeal or not. I unfortunately don't have a blaster and have been having to outsource that part of the job.

I'm planning on keeping this pipe for myself so I may go ahead and make a stem for it, send it off to be blasted, and then coat the chamber pretty good and hope for the best. Fingers crossed.

I'm really hoping that flaw doesn't blast through. I know it doesn't show up in the pics, but this ring grain is sick. Also, this stem is my best saddle so far, but this clear/translucent material is impossible to photograph (by impossible, I mean impossible for me who is a know-nothing).

I LOVE THAT STEM MATERIAL.

....and the pipe ain't bad either.....