I'm interested if others here have experienced that cross-cut pipes with a predominate Birdseye grain are easier to break-in and perhaps sweeter smokers then straight grains. It may be a myth, (I've heard this from other pipe smokers thru the years) but I too have experienced this. Some of my sweetest smokers - blasts and smooth - are BEs. As a woodworker I know that end grain in all woods is more absorbent then straight grain. What us your experience?
Birdseye vs. Sraight Grain & Break-in
- Thread starter Ziggywm
- Start date
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I actually never experienced a difference. But maybe I’m just a knuckle-dragger that doesn’t pay that close attention.
Nope. I've had better and worse break-in experiences with every cut of briar (and every country of origin too), and I really don't think grain orientation is much of a factor. If a pipe is smoking great right off the bat, it's a great piece of briar, and probably a good stem to boot. But turning a piece of briar sideways changes its smoking in now way that I've ever been able to register.
My opinion, if someone can tell a smoking difference between grains, is has to be a figment of their imagination.
No difference between them or any other pipe I've broken in.
I have always heard a straight grain is the best smoker because the Birdseye at the bottom of the chamber is so absorbent.
Like most things, I have no goddamn idea.
I don't believe any good pipe even NEEDS a break in. By good, I don't necessarily mean expensive. I have always smoked Castello, Blakemar, Blatter and Blatter, Stanwell, and Jesse Jones pipes from the very start like they were 10 years old. As far as grain, I think the difference is simply another pipe myth, like so many others. It really isn't as complicated as many seem to want to make it.
My experience entirely - most likely inexperienced or insensitive palate on my part.
Perhaps Mr Palate, Jiminks may care to comment
I love a good sideways straightgrain.
Same. I sometimes wish I could've gotten Bruce to sandblast this one, straight grains make the best blasts.
Throughout my life, I have had about 300 pipes, now less, I have sold almost all the brand pipes and I keep buying new ones but from artisans, artisans that I like, I have never really noticed any difference in this.
I think it is more a myth or fruit of snobbery that some want to apply to the pipe, smoking a pipe is just that, filling a piece of wood, more beautiful or less, that depends on the taste of each one, who is a good smoker and nothing more.
If it is true that all or almost all, we like to have pipes of good craftsmen or reputable brands, that's another thing, part of collecting.
I think it is more a myth or fruit of snobbery that some want to apply to the pipe, smoking a pipe is just that, filling a piece of wood, more beautiful or less, that depends on the taste of each one, who is a good smoker and nothing more.
If it is true that all or almost all, we like to have pipes of good craftsmen or reputable brands, that's another thing, part of collecting.
Is it possible? Sure. Is it probable ,even if true, that it is to a noticeable factor? Probably not.
One of the reasons I raise the question is Red Oak, a hard, hardwood. If you put the end grain of dry seasoned Oak in a bowl of water and blow on the other end you will see air bubbles coming out. Now I know Briar is harder then Oak, but like it those fibers once carried sap. Fiber direction makes a difference. It may not be noticeable in terms of smoking quality, but that's why I asked - to take a survey. Based on grain dynamics it's not a stupid question.
The "is it red or white oak" bubble test you reference there is a check for a cellular feature (open 'straws') present in red, but not white oak, which often looks very similar - this the need for a quick test.
Unless you are sanding the bowl back to bare wood between smokes, the grain can not possibly have an effect.
Unless you are sanding the bowl back to bare wood between smokes, the grain can not possibly have an effect.
Yes White Oak is harder then Red. Yet, it still has fibers that carry sap, albeit not as open as Red or Briar. Are you so sure the Carbon cake isn't porous? Then why do we rest a pipe between smokes or give it time to dry? Food for thought.
The theory is correct, I think, but the actual difference with briar is a extremely small. I.e., not noticeable.