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Just a question, I have the opportunity to buy briar burls at a very attractive price for obvious reasons. Can the be cut on a commercial band saw ? I don't have mimmos saw . Is it worth alittle work or is it a impractical fools erand? thanx Bob Clark.

It should be possible, providing you use a bandsaw sled. There is a lot more to briar than just cutting it, thought.

Cut, boil, cure.... what could possibly go wrong??

I would buy them just because it would be fun, and if I got something good after a year of drying, then awesome, and if not.... I had fun playing.

Your in for lotsa work if the burls have not bee cured.

LexKY_Pipe wrote:Your in for lotsa work if the burls have not bee cured.

I am a total newb. This is my first post and I know there is lots to learn. How exactly do you cure the burl?

I let someone else cure my briar, but it's boiled for a long time to remove resins and then dried real slow.

Chances are what you are buying are not fresh burls and also not cured. Boiling dried out burls will likely result in nothing but cracked blocks from the re-hydration and subsequent slow drying. Too much stress on the structure of the wood.

Based on my experiance earlier this year I would say it would only be worthwhile if the burls are coming straight from a briar mill and have been kept damp. Once it begins to dry out the burl will start to shrink and crack, from the one I had I thought I had four nice pieces of plateau until I started working with them and found small cracks inside.

From talking to two briar suppliers they reccomend at least three years for drying.

I do have lots of briar for making tampers though.

David.

Fun as a novelty, but pretty well worthless for making pipes.

TJ