Briar Round Up
Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:12 am
I suspect a whole bunch of us are in a similar position, where we are looking to buy 5 blocks, or 10 or 20, rather than bringing in a pallet full of briar. Many of us don't have a dedicated direct supply chain - we buy what we can where we can, when we need it (or in my case, just after I need it, but I'm not too bright that way).
What I'm gonna write here is my own experience, I don't mean it to be an exhaustive briar reference and I am absolutely open to other experiences and opinions - in fact it would be good to hear from some of the rest of you on this as time goes by.
Algerian: (Yazidbriar.com) - when PME had this stuff, I thought most of it was great right up until the end when it seemed to get not so great. But for good even graining and relatively few flaws, the algerian I've handled was wonderful. I haven't bought any for a while, and I've never bought directly from Yazid because there were some "I waited 6 months for briar" sort of stories floating around. I would be very curious to hear from anyone who has successfully ordered quanities large or small in the recent past - how was the transaction, how was the product?
I would call Algerian "medium" for hardness and density. It works fairly easily but is also a little more resilient to tools/scratching/cracking than some other briar.
Spanish: (Briarblocks.com) - I use a lot of Jaume's briar. And when I'm not tremendously pissed off at it, I'm totally thrilled with it. I've had almost all the grades they sell, and various sizes. For some reason, the ebauchon products haven't worked well for me. I've bought regular and birdeye ebauchons, and out of a dozen or so blocks, only produced a couple or smooth-grade pipes. The "extra" plateaux is briar - grain ranges from pretty good to completely wacky, but most of the blocks are sound. The XX is good stuff - I've had relatively few outright bin-able failures. And the best ones are super, the grain is awesome and the blocks are pure.
There tend to be more issues near the bark with some of these blocks than I've seen on other plateaux - you have to choose wisely and sometimes do a little exploratory cutting. Most of the blocks are big enough to allow this, and to allow re-cutting to maximize grain orientation.
The "very tight" blocks are just that - very tightly grained. They are hard and dense for the most part, with high ring count. They are silly for price, but really interesting to work on.
This stuff is fairly hard, it sandblasts like concrete, but finishes smooth with no effort.
Italian - (Romeobriar.com) Mimmo sells 10, 20 and 30 packs of "extra" grade, at the punch of a button, or you can special order. My 10 included a good assortment of blocks, some nice R-type crosscut ebauchons, a couple large plateaux pieces and a couple of half-moon type plateaux, a really long ebauchon and I think one m-type (straight pipe). They come clean as a whistle - bark is scrubbed off which is nice. There's hardly any flaws in the wood - in the 8 I've cut I only had one pipe that I had to either rusticate or change the shape of due to an internal briar flaw. I am actually reminded of cheese - just big blocks that you can carve into with hardly any risk. The grain is .... good. Just regular and even. There was nothing in my box that was heart-stopping, but I didn't pay for heart-stopping, I just paid for briar. The ebauchons were really good.
This stuff surprised me at just how soft it is. The first ones I cut I beat the hell out of because I'm used to harder wood. It finishes fine, you just have to treat it a little nicely. Sandblasts really easily. The wood will arrive less than totally dry. I don't know how long it needs, but it needs some drying time - shanks were noticeably shrinking after two weeks here.
Mystery Briar - (JHLowe.com) I don't know where Tim got the briar he has, but it sounds like he has a mountain of it. I got an assortment of cuts and sizes last year, and was certainly reminded of the algerian I'd handled in terms of how the briar felt, smelt, and cut. Tim's got some monstous blocks, the biggest pieces I've ever seen, I think, and I didn't buy the biggest he offers. None of the big ones were problem free though - checking and fissuring seemed to be an issue on the biggest blocks, and I don't know if that's common or just luck of the draw.
The ebauchons were as good as anything I've used. I got some real nice pipes out of the ebauchons and the smaller plateaux pieces.
This is good all-around briar - softer than some, harder than some, smokes really good, and it seems to have been sitting awhile - no moisture issues.
Pipemaker's Emporium (pipemaker's.org) - the Tuscan they have currently is good all-around briar. I've had very few failures out of probably 10 or 20 blocks of their current stock. The blocks are a good size - Medium is big enough for fairly large pipes, large is really big and the XL blocks yield up magnums.
The grain is regular and predictable, very easy to read and use to good advantage. Easy briar to work with. I've had really good luck with it, but I know some other people who are less enamored, so it may just be that - luck.
At any rate, y'all can price things out for yourselves and do what you think suits your purposes. I would buy briar from all of these sources again, but I wouldn't buy the same blocks or hope to use it for the same purpose, necessarily. A guy making collector-grade volcanoes has a different need than a guy who is merely trying to get a pipe-shaped object ground into submission.
I certainly want to hear other people's experiences with any other vendors (or these as well).
What I'm gonna write here is my own experience, I don't mean it to be an exhaustive briar reference and I am absolutely open to other experiences and opinions - in fact it would be good to hear from some of the rest of you on this as time goes by.
Algerian: (Yazidbriar.com) - when PME had this stuff, I thought most of it was great right up until the end when it seemed to get not so great. But for good even graining and relatively few flaws, the algerian I've handled was wonderful. I haven't bought any for a while, and I've never bought directly from Yazid because there were some "I waited 6 months for briar" sort of stories floating around. I would be very curious to hear from anyone who has successfully ordered quanities large or small in the recent past - how was the transaction, how was the product?
I would call Algerian "medium" for hardness and density. It works fairly easily but is also a little more resilient to tools/scratching/cracking than some other briar.
Spanish: (Briarblocks.com) - I use a lot of Jaume's briar. And when I'm not tremendously pissed off at it, I'm totally thrilled with it. I've had almost all the grades they sell, and various sizes. For some reason, the ebauchon products haven't worked well for me. I've bought regular and birdeye ebauchons, and out of a dozen or so blocks, only produced a couple or smooth-grade pipes. The "extra" plateaux is briar - grain ranges from pretty good to completely wacky, but most of the blocks are sound. The XX is good stuff - I've had relatively few outright bin-able failures. And the best ones are super, the grain is awesome and the blocks are pure.
There tend to be more issues near the bark with some of these blocks than I've seen on other plateaux - you have to choose wisely and sometimes do a little exploratory cutting. Most of the blocks are big enough to allow this, and to allow re-cutting to maximize grain orientation.
The "very tight" blocks are just that - very tightly grained. They are hard and dense for the most part, with high ring count. They are silly for price, but really interesting to work on.
This stuff is fairly hard, it sandblasts like concrete, but finishes smooth with no effort.
Italian - (Romeobriar.com) Mimmo sells 10, 20 and 30 packs of "extra" grade, at the punch of a button, or you can special order. My 10 included a good assortment of blocks, some nice R-type crosscut ebauchons, a couple large plateaux pieces and a couple of half-moon type plateaux, a really long ebauchon and I think one m-type (straight pipe). They come clean as a whistle - bark is scrubbed off which is nice. There's hardly any flaws in the wood - in the 8 I've cut I only had one pipe that I had to either rusticate or change the shape of due to an internal briar flaw. I am actually reminded of cheese - just big blocks that you can carve into with hardly any risk. The grain is .... good. Just regular and even. There was nothing in my box that was heart-stopping, but I didn't pay for heart-stopping, I just paid for briar. The ebauchons were really good.
This stuff surprised me at just how soft it is. The first ones I cut I beat the hell out of because I'm used to harder wood. It finishes fine, you just have to treat it a little nicely. Sandblasts really easily. The wood will arrive less than totally dry. I don't know how long it needs, but it needs some drying time - shanks were noticeably shrinking after two weeks here.
Mystery Briar - (JHLowe.com) I don't know where Tim got the briar he has, but it sounds like he has a mountain of it. I got an assortment of cuts and sizes last year, and was certainly reminded of the algerian I'd handled in terms of how the briar felt, smelt, and cut. Tim's got some monstous blocks, the biggest pieces I've ever seen, I think, and I didn't buy the biggest he offers. None of the big ones were problem free though - checking and fissuring seemed to be an issue on the biggest blocks, and I don't know if that's common or just luck of the draw.
The ebauchons were as good as anything I've used. I got some real nice pipes out of the ebauchons and the smaller plateaux pieces.
This is good all-around briar - softer than some, harder than some, smokes really good, and it seems to have been sitting awhile - no moisture issues.
Pipemaker's Emporium (pipemaker's.org) - the Tuscan they have currently is good all-around briar. I've had very few failures out of probably 10 or 20 blocks of their current stock. The blocks are a good size - Medium is big enough for fairly large pipes, large is really big and the XL blocks yield up magnums.
The grain is regular and predictable, very easy to read and use to good advantage. Easy briar to work with. I've had really good luck with it, but I know some other people who are less enamored, so it may just be that - luck.
At any rate, y'all can price things out for yourselves and do what you think suits your purposes. I would buy briar from all of these sources again, but I wouldn't buy the same blocks or hope to use it for the same purpose, necessarily. A guy making collector-grade volcanoes has a different need than a guy who is merely trying to get a pipe-shaped object ground into submission.
I certainly want to hear other people's experiences with any other vendors (or these as well).