Why briar is the "best" pipe wood.

[Sasquatch]

I have noticed a large number of people interested in experimenting with woods that are perhaps more readily available than briar, or perhaps less expensive. I am going to try to summarize the reasons that this is by and large a waste of time and money, if the intent is to someday make a nice briar pipe. If your intent is to make weird pipes out of weird materials, I cannot quarrel.

Most woods have a linear grain structure, and this is also the strong axis of the wood. If you cut a 1/2" off a 2x4, you can easily take the cutoff and break it into 10 pieces. If you take a piece of wood a 1/2" thick with the grain running longways, you won't be able to break it at all. So this is the first reason that other woods are inferior to briar: briar's grain is very tight and much less linear than most other woods. It is also very strong. What this means is that when you shape a briar pipe, you don't have to worry about the stem snapping off if you get the grain wrong, and on a maple/walnut/pine/whatever pipe this is a real concern. (And if you run the grain "up" the stem with these other woods, you'll find that the mortise cracks because of the wet/dry cycling).

Briar is almost immune to moisture, it changes much less than most woods, and much more slowly. Woods like maple are very susceptible to cracking from wet/dry cycling, particularly with the application of heat. Pipes are a very very demanding application for wood.

So briar is both stronger, more stable, and less prone to damage from the very types of treatment that a pipe naturally undergoes, than any "regular" wood.

On top of this, briar blocks are treated in a way that no other wood is. They are boiled to remove crappy tasting resins, and then dried very thorougly. So when you get your briar block, it's ready to become a pipe. It's dry. It's clean. When you drill the mortise, it's not going to change size overnight as the wood shrinks. This treatment also makes briar taste very neutral when you smoke it. It's not full of bad tasting oils, and most other woods are.

A lot of woods, particularly african woods, are full of nasty oils and resins. Any woodworker who has had a Wenge sliver will tell you that it feels like a bee sting because the wood is literally full of poison. This is not good candidate pipe wood - heating up a bowl full of oils that are nasty (and are allergy sensitizers) is not a real bright idea imho.

Most woods will wick tars away and absorb all the excess moisture as you smoke. This makes for a "great smoker" except that after 20 bowls or so, you'll see the tar on the outside of the bowl, but only on endgrain. Very ugly. Briar pipes don't do that.

Likewise, most woods are quite happy to burn right around the temperature that your tobacco is burning, and briar is not.

So we make pipes from briar not because we are snobs, but because time has shown that it is a very suitable material for the purposes we are putting it to. It doesn't burn, it doesn't change size, it doesn't wick, it tastes fine, it's not ultra-expensive (find me a block of Snakewood, why dontcha?). And it's pretty on top of all this.

So as you root around through the manzanita burls at Home Depot, or think to yourself, "wow, with just 20 dollars, I can make thrity five pipes from this cedar post", do yourself a favor and go buy a few pieces of briar. There is so little similarity between briar and other woods that "practicing" on other woods amounts to teaching yourself skills that do not transfer to briar.

So the answer to "Can I make a pipe out of __________ wood?" is "Yes you can, but it won't be as good as briar for a dozen important reasons."

[Dixie_piper]

Briar is the "Beez neez" in other words?
Just to echo what you and others have already said, and I'm sure will have to say again; BRIAR IS NOT THAT EXPENSIVE!
Walnut IS however, except the japanese company that's selling them literally by the thousands for less than $10 a pop!

[TRS]

But my pressure treated decking wood pipe has a distinct tangy flavor that you just can't find with briar.

[MadTinker]

If I could go up the street and purchase Briar, then I would. It is just not readily availbale other than the Internet. I believe that is one of the reasons of trying other wood. I like to try different things and get different effects. I love my 2 Mesquite Pipes so far. Anyway Thanx for the Sig..........

[Dixie_piper]

No one is trying to give you grief about using alternative woods, I believe the intent of the post here was to elaborate the title.
A lot of people come here asking about different woods one week, and the next week claim to have found a pipe wood superior to briar.
Believe you me, I was all about Walnut pipes before coming here. I was convinced that it had to be equivalent to briar, etc, etc. As you'll hear Kurt say, do what you can with what you have
There are several here who sometimes use alternative woods, and many have argued relentlessly that they've outsmarted 100+ years of pipe making theory, hence the apprehension of most to accept other woods.
You'll learn here that many may give you a hard time, but it's not in a mean spirited way usually. Woods that aren't already used in some pipes, are usually not used for some reason or another.
But all joking aside, congrats, you've just entered the beginning stges of pipe making; research, and it just gets crazier from here on in

[Nate]

But my pressure treated decking wood pipe has a distinct tangy flavor that you just can't find with briar.

Hahahaha. Mmmmm!!!

[baweaverpipes]

I believe that Japanese Leprechauns use bonsai burl from the snasuswaba tree only found in Djibouti. They claim, in their squeaky voices, that it is superior to briar. It is my understanding the the briar is further enhanced by curing in a boiling mixture of pink hearts and green clovers, which invalidates the myth that it was oil cured.

[MadTinker]

Man Guys, Are all your Comedy Shows Free or do you usually charge for them. All that Briar Dust must have gone to your Heads......

[KurtHuhn]

I prefer the zoosw'kai burl. It's boiled in a mixture of milk and blood, then slow cured over an open flame by the light of the wolf moon. After that it's buried in guano and left for 100 years before it can be made into a pipe. The flavor is sublime, especially when you mix Captain Black White and Halfzware in a parfait fashion.

[SimeonTurner]

I'd like to nominate Sasquatch for poster of the year.

I'd also like to nominate Bruce for bumwuzzle of the year.

Any objections?

[Tyler]

I'd like to nominate Sasquatch for poster of the year.

I'd also like to nominate Bruce for bumwuzzle of the year.

Any objections?

Yes.

[KurtHuhn]

I'd like to nominate Sasquatch for poster of the year.

I'd also like to nominate Bruce for bumwuzzle of the year.

Seconded!

[Sasquatch]

If I could go up the street and purchase Briar, then I would. It is just not readily availbale other than the Internet. I believe that is one of the reasons of trying other wood. I like to try different things and get different effects. I love my 2 Mesquite Pipes so far. Anyway Thanx for the Sig..........

So, look, here's what I just don't "get" - you clearly have "the internet", so it's actually EASIER to buy briar than to buy other woods. Hell, I don't go to Spain and cut the shit, Jaume does it for me, digs up the burls and everything. I click "Buy it" at pipemakers.org or Briarblocks.com or Romeobriar.com and the stuff comes right to my house.

The idea that you are saving money by making pipes from other stuff is absolute bullshit unless you are literally harvesting free material. In that case, you are merely wasting the money of sandpaper and stains and stems etc, and that's all fine if that's your hobby, god knows the money I've poured into less productive stuff, so I can't tell anyone that they are wrong for doing so. But IF the idea of coming here is to learn something about making nice pipes that you could sell for money, money which buys more material and tools and lets you make nicer pipes and sell them for even more money.... if that's a goal at all, then you gotta forget the manzanita and the Leprechaun wood and all that shit. (You hear that Weaver? FORGET THE LEPRECHAUN WOOD YOU BUMWUZZLE!)

The generic answer is "Yes, you can make a pipe from that wood." But the full answer is "Yes, you can make a pipe from that wood, but it won't be as good as a briar pipe for a whole bunch of reasons." These reasons are not made up, there's no secret society at work here. Briar is truly a unique and incredible wood to work, and I feel lucky as an experienced woodworker to have come across pipe making and been able to handle some lovely blocks of this material.

I take pipe making seriously - it's just a hobby for me, but I've tried to learn how to make a good smoking pipe, and a comfortable stem, and a decent looking pipe. It was hard. I was surprised at how difficult all that is. I sort of suspect that there's a certain type of person who is intimidated by all this (maybe everyone is) and who sort of goes in a different direction and decides to make pipes from, as TJ said, "fossilized potatoes and compressed elastic bands" in order that their pipes be beyond criticism from the "ordinary" pipe makers and that in effect a guy is trying to bypass learning how to make an "ordinary" "English type" tobacco pipe.

Now again, if this is just a thing for you, Tinker, where you are having some fun out in the shop and you like tasting different woods and seeing how they finish and stuff... that's cool.

I've laid out specific technical reasons why briar is the best overall pipe wood, and I hope this thread answers the next guy who comes along and wants to know how his neighbors' newly cut-down Sickamore will do as a pipe wood.

[KurtHuhn]

I cut down a red oak today, and made a pipe from it. It tastes like cat pee, but since it's as dense as briar on the Janka scale I suspect it might actually be better.

Screw all of you. I'm doing it my way.

My wood is free.

100 years of experience means nothing.

You are all fools.

Suck my pipe.

[CastAxe]

That is the only reason why i inquire so frequently about alternative woods is because i can get pretty much any wood i want for free, except for briar . I got black market connections

[LAH]

Conspiracy!

[Nate]

You guys crack me up!


Oh and by the way, I have saved all my briar dust and am going to glue it up and make it into a pipe. Also I have a few old bowling balls, so I am going to make Brylon pipes too. Wo0t!

[Sasquatch]

You guys crack me up!


Oh and by the way, I have saved all my briar dust and am going to glue it up and make it into a pipe. Also I have a few old bowling balls, so I am going to make Brylon pipes too. Wo0t!

Damn, I've been throwing away briar dust like crazy. And here I could have been mailing it to Nate!

[Dixie_piper]

Brylon pipes, now see, THAT'S what ya need for makin a pipe! I heard it grows wild up in Sasquatch country, you holdin out Todd?
Better yet, why don't you get hold of some of that mammoth horn, and see if you can trade it for some purpleheart, bet ya can make some purdy pipes outta that, lest you forget to use "from-unda" glazed bowl coating otherwise it's just f*cked!

[Nate]

You guys crack me up!


Oh and by the way, I have saved all my briar dust and am going to glue it up and make it into a pipe. Also I have a few old bowling balls, so I am going to make Brylon pipes too. Wo0t!

Damn, I've been throwing away briar dust like crazy. And here I could have been mailing it to Nate!

Yeah, you and Simeon, throwing out good dust!