A Rumination on the Superiority of Good Briar

[Briar Lee]

I am concerned when we use an article by Greg to shut down conversations, especially by a moderator. I love Greg, respect the hell out of him, and I will buy his blends till I no longer can, but he is damn sure a LOOOOOOONG way from being a God ordained master of pipes and tobaccos. Yes, he may know more than the majority of us, even me. And, he may have been writing about these topics since before most of the board was born, but we might as well just ask Greg everything if we think this. What point is the forum then? "Lets talk about what Greg says..."

Briar Lee, you've got a tough room here. I want you to feel welcome to this forum, and don't be afraid to post any topic you want to talk about. And, if someone pulls the Greg is F'n God card, I will be the first to stand up for you. Also, keep in mind, that I will be the first to defend Greg if someone goes shootin' off on him. He is to be respected for his work in our hobby, but I won't put him on a pedestal, and I am pretty sure he don't want to set on one either.

Me and Greg Pease agree on at least one thing. Grabow will make a thousand pipes today and each one, because of some unexplained variance in briars,,,,will taste different.

Quote from Grandmaster Pease

First up, a lovely pair of Heeschens. Early in our friendship, I asked Peter if he would be willing to make me two identical pipes from the same block. He agreed. They are as close to monozygotic twins as two pipes can be, having the same dimensions, the same internals, both being made by the same man, on the same day, from the same block. For the twenty years I’ve had them, I have smoked them together, the same blends in each, often going as far weighing out the tobacco to ensure each was filled the same way. These two pipes taste as similar as two pipes can, but despite being born and raised together, being treated with the same care throughout their lives, they remain distinctly different from one another. One is slightly sweeter, the other a bit spicier.


——
Here’s where I’ll open up another discussion, within a subject.

There’s one man at Dr Grabow today, who’s forgotten more about briar than I’ll ever know. He’s the man responsible that no stinkers leave the plant, and I’d bet not one does, because of his briar selection.

There is a science, of picking acceptable briar. Excellent briar may be an art.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Here’s where I’ll open up another discussion, within a subject.

Just a suggestion, but I think you'll get more people staying on that topic if you start a new thread. I tend to skim or just skip reading the other posts when I post. You could possibly get a mishmash of confusion opening a new topic in such a well travelled thread as this one. Just a suggestion.

 

[hauntedmyst]

In all my 40 years of smoking, I've had at least 100 pipes and sold many hundreds more. In that time, I've experienced 5 pieces of bad briar. One was just a piece of crap pipe that never smoked well. The other 4 were burn outs. Bad briar in this day and age is extraordinarily rare. Bad engineering is another story but still remarkably rare.

 

[Chasing Embers]

There’s one man at Dr Grabow today, who’s forgotten more about briar than I’ll ever know. He’s the man responsible that no stinkers leave the plant, and I’d bet not one does, because of his briar seselection.

He needs to check those accursed metal tenons to see which ones will chew up a mortise and which one doesn't.

 

[PipeIT]

Just a suggestion, but I think you'll get more people staying on that topic if you start a new thread. I tend to skim or just skip reading the other posts when I post. You could possibly get a mishmash of confusion opening a new topic in such a well travelled thread as this one. Just a suggestion.

Yes, I thought we were on about figuring out his Dr. Grabow, then student becomes teacher and it starts flipping around, also at times looking like a sales pitch.

Don’t mean to be sounding rude here either.

Look it’s not Quantum Physics.

All we are talking about is wood.

These are going to be the things that effect wood...

We can also break this down into two categories, the Before and During.

What happens before, which is out of our control, and the during effects, when it’s in our possession.

Before Effects:

1. Region, soil conditions, weather grown in.
2. Age of Briar when harvested
3. Curing, Drying
4. How it was, shaped/dimensions, cut and drilled
5. Possibilities on wood finishes, chamber coatings, etc..

During Effects:

1. Climate and condition the pipe is kept in.
2. Smoking tabac blends, along with smoking styles
3. Relates also to #1 how well cared for, and dry time allowed between smokes.

Well does that cover the Quantum Mechanics of Briar? LOL ?

P.S. Learning the basics of Aerodynamics has been simpler than this topic...

 

[chopper]

All but one is sleeping in a graveyard but I’ve known quite a few daily pipe smokers who

1. Bought a pipe at the drug store

2. Bought one brand of tobacco at the grocery store (Prince Albert or Velvet preferred)

3. Smoked that one pipe, every day and all day long, until it got so burned and sour they bought another one, to replace it.

4. They had to buy a corncob every few months, but a Grabow might last a year or two.

It's not something that I like to admit but before I found the internet and pipe forums I didn't have half a clue.
My one and only pipe was a full bent Peterson Sherlock Holmes that I smoked day in, day out for several years.
That pipe was tortured by my ignorance - if ever a pipe was going to turn sour - it's got such a huge bowl that I often just topped it up, leaving a base of baccy that acted as a filter.
When cleaned out the remnants stunk.

Yet that pipe never turned sour. It's not ever been given an alcohol treatment.
The only reason that it's still not in my daily rotation is due to it's massive bowl. [It's the pipe I often take to social events. One bowl can last me an entire night].

I did just about everything wrong with that pipe yet it's still a good smoker.
So when I ever read of a pipe turning sour, I imagine it must be smoked by someone who drools excessively [down the stem] after regular meals of anchovies, pickled pigs intestines and egg salad that's well past it's used-by date.

 

[mso489]

I'm a failed violin student so shouldn't speak on that issue, but I've heard that one of the reasons that the Strads get played by professionals so much is that if they aren't played, they deteriorate, they lose resonance of tone. It's kind of like automobiles that aren't driven. Use it or lose it. That may be why some pipes that have been smoked into disrepair may restore well. That's a reason to smoke pipes and not just collect them.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yes, I thought we were on about figuring out his Dr. Grabow, then student becomes teacher and it starts flipping around, also at times looking like a sales pitch.

Don’t mean to be sounding rude here either.

Look it’s not Quantum Physics.

All we are talking about is wood.

These are going to be the things that effect wood...

We can also break this down into two categories, the Before and During.

What happens before, which is out of our control, and the during effects, when it’s in our possession.

Before Effects:

1. Region, soil conditions, weather grown in.
2. Age of Briar when harvested
3. Curing, Drying
4. How it was, shaped/dimensions, cut and drilled
5. Possibilities on wood finishes, chamber coatings, etc..

During Effects:

1. Climate and condition the pipe is kept in.
2. Smoking tabac blends, along with smoking styles
3. Relates also to #1 how well cared for, and dry time allowed between smokes.

Well does that cover the Quantum Mechanics of Briar? LOL ?

P.S. Learning the basics of Aerodynamics has been simpler than this topic...

You left out fluid dynamics and the venturi effect.?

 

[Briar Lee]

To further the discussion, there’s oil cured vs water cured blocks of briar, air dried vs kiln dried, female vs male roots, and the biggest variance perhaps of all:

Ebauchon vs Plateaux​

Kaywoodie used to advertise every Drinkless was made of Plateaux briar.

And maybe a few plateaux blocks were bought by Grabow but your drug store pipe was made from an ebauchon.

I love my Danish free hands and other such pipes where I know, because I can see the burly root lumps, my pipe was carved from an Plateaux.

But as I understand it an ebauchon is a small briar root, that was harvested before it grew up to be a plateaux.

All briar might be born equal but when it goes before the pipe maker a plateaux is a lot more equal than an ebauchon.

I’m smoking one of my favorite pipes, a Briar Lee third generation push stem yacht that could have been a four or five star Lee except for that one, tiny fill.

I’ll bet this briar was an oil cured plateaux when it was made.

This pipe smokes as good as it looks, and I don’t think that’s an accident.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Very nice! I see someone has tapped ash/dottle out on a hard surface, no?

 

[Briar Lee]

Very nice! I see someone has tapped ash/dottle out on a hard surface, no?

Before me, yes they did.

But now that I have it, I’m not going to ever hurt it smoking it in rotation with many other pipes.

The pipe is magnificent, both to look at and smoke. It’s a treasure I’m only the custodian of during my lifetime.

But that Briar Lee was an accident resulting from a tiny sand pit surfacing while a craftsman was polishing a very high grade piece of the finest grade of briar for a high grade Lee.

The construction was mainly done by automatic machines.

 

[anotherbob]

In their early '20's pamphlet, "The Romance Of The Barling Pipe", the Company wrote about looking for burls that were around 60 years of age. In their 1962 catalog they wrote about looking for briar between "80 and 120" years of age. I think the latter is a sales pitch, since they weren't making pipes strictly from Algerian briar, having lost their Algerian harvesting operations in 1954.

Looking for is very different then finding and using.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I’ll bet this briar was an oil cured plateaux when it was made.

Judging by the erratic grain, I would've guessed ebauchon.

 

[anotherbob]

Anyone that's had a bad pipe can attest to the idea of bad briar. That is if everything else seems fine. If you've experienced that you certain find it not a stretch to assume that if it can ruin a smoke that completely then the briar should at least be able to also be superior to others. That could be wrong but... Not the part about a bad briar making it easier to imagine a superior specimen.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Anyone that's had a bad pipe can attest to the idea of bad briar. That is if everything else seems fine. If you've experienced that you certain find it not a stretch to assume that if it can ruin a smoke that completely then the briar should at least be able to also be superior to others. That could be wrong but... Not the part about a bad briar making it easier to imagine a superior specimen.

Mine have always come down to bad drilling or obstructed airways. Widening the draft can fix many problems as well.

 

[anotherbob]

Mine have always come down to bad drilling or obstructed airways. Widening the draft can fix many problems as well.

thankfully never had an issue with that. The one bad pipe I bought I even had this strong feeling it might be a piece of shit (it was 30 dollars but looks cool). But I have never run into any drilling issues and one obstructed airway that got fixed easily by the seller.

 

[sasquatch]

Ebauchon aren't simply small roots, they are just a cut of briar that doesn't have bark. If a briar block is cut so that it has the outside skin on it, it's a plateau. Everything else is Ebauchon, and they come in two basic from, "M" and "R" (Marsellaises and Relevées) depending on the shape. These are cut from whatever pieces are left after cutting for better grained plateau. At some point, the entire burl would have been cut into these efficient rectangular shapes, yielding simply the highest number of blanks possible. Today's cutters pay more attention and operate with a different goal (which is why Mimmo and Makis and the other cutters are popular with artisans). Like plateaus, ebauchons come in different grades and sizes. Ebauchons were bought by the bag by factories, a bale being a hundred dozen or some such (can't remember off the top of my head).

At this point, all briar is cut, graded, boiled, graded again, dried some, and shipped. Any further curing, including oil curing by those few who do that, is done on site, and after a pipe is shaped. Whether it does anything at this point is debatable (adds a pleasant flavor to the wood I suppose). The initial boil, if done right, cleans the tannins and acidic pink goo out of the briar.

 

[sablebrush52]

Looking for is very different then finding and using.

True, but given what they were harvesting, and remember that they had their own physical harvesting and processing operations in Algeria, not relying on agents and third parties, they most likely found what they were looking for.

 

[anotherbob]

True, but given what they were harvesting, and remember that they had their own physical harvesting and processing operations in Algeria, not relying on agents and third parties, they most likely found what they were looking for.

Though not as conclusive of a statement. Makes me feel like it's more of when we can then a guarantee.

 

[Derby]

Personally I find that pipes which look good against my dark olive moleskin trousers smoke much better, with a fuller rounder flavour than mere ordinary pipes, which fail to meet this exacting standard of colour coordination.View attachment 96212

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