Best low-end briar?

[jp12]

My best low-end briar isn't even made of briar. I recently came across a Monterey Mission Briar at an antique store for $10. Turns out that during WWII briar sources were scarce so American pipe makers turned to other woods. One of these woods was the manzanita. Sourced out of northern California, manzanita burl was marketed as Mission Briar. After the war briar supplies came back and the manzanita, while a great substitute, was not a superior wood so the pipe makers turned back to briar. The pipe smokes phenomenally and is also an incredibly neat piece of pipe smoking history.

 

[fnord]

Years ago I snagged a Dr. Grabow rusticated Berwyck bulldog/bullmoose that smokes as well as my Nording, vintage GBDs and Comoys. It was in an eBay purchase where I was happier to get the pipe rack than all of the dime store pipes that came with it.
Back then I knew less about pipes than I do today but it seemed pretty obvious then that this was somebody's favorite pipe. It was a pig: full of cake, covered with white paint and uglier than sin. The stem had olived and was covered with old saliva stains, but I stumbled and bumbled through numerous self-taught cleaning processes and ended up with a "go-to" pipe I reach for on a regular basis.
Not bad for a chunk of briar that came into this world as a club pipe one could obtain for a couple of Sir Walter Raleigh coupons and a half buck worth of postage.

 

[arinbjorn]

I have a $20 bent billiard from eBay. Its a black sandblast. Simply stamped made in Italy - though it looks a lot like a Pipe Dan sort of pipe.
It is a really, REALLY good pipe! It smokes as well as several of my artisan made pipes.

 

[slowpuffer]

HIS makes a great pipe for under $30. I have had three of them during my pipe smoking career and they smoke extremely well.

 

[igloo]

I will second the HIS brand , fit and finish are a little off but they make a great pipe .