Briar Types

[sparrowhawk]

How does one distinguish between one grade of briar and another? For example, I recently bought a Sherlock Holmes/Mycroft PSB, which is said to come from the one percent of Peterson's inventory of briars. How would this grade of briar compare with a lower grade? Esthetically different (PSB makes for a handsome sandblast)? Or different in smoking flavor? (My Holmes pipe hasn't arrived yet.)

 

[Chasing Embers]

How would this grade of briar compare with a lower grade?

Only aesthetically. Quality of drilling is what's going to affect the smoking.

 

[sablebrush52]

That's a question best answered by cutters and carvers, people who work with and grade briar, and those answers won't be 100% homogeneous.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

Pits, grain, etc. I’m not a pipe carver, so I’ll refrain from talking out of my ass with briar specifically, but my bladesmithing requires me to work with natural materials quite often. I can tell you this for certain: just because a piece of wood is graded highly doesn’t guarantee you won’t run into flaws in it.

 

[didimauw]

Where's Mimo when you need him???
I've always wondered this as well ... Not like it matters, I smoke grabows kaywoodies and cobs lol

 

[peregrinus]

Wether it’s pipe grades, gemstones or used cars I’m always a little skeptical of anyone who self-grades there own product or merchandise. There is an inherent conflict of interest in such an arrangement.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Where's Mimo when you need him???
I've always wondered this as well ... Not like it matters, I smoke grabows kaywoodies and cobs lol

All of the pipes I've commissioned have been top grade briar from Mimmo, though beautiful to look at, they really smoke no different than any other well carved pipe.

 

[sasquatch]

There is no single, fully standardized way of grading briar. Very roughly you have primo, which is pretty ugly, Extra, which is nicer, and Extra Extra which is nicer yet. But what each mill or cutter means by such terms is not the same, and certain mills grade entirely outside of those (somewhat old fashioned) designations. Let's look at a few blocks. In this first picture, you can see the strong, regular, tight grain in the block at left. Block on top is also tight and even, but the cut is not quite as good (from the top view, you can see the block is pretty crooked and the grain will follow that shape). The block on the right shows far less grain, it's a way less pretty block. And this is born out if we see the crust:
The crust or outside bit shows nothing but uniform tight tiny bumps on the best block. A little looser on the middle block (and you can see how crooked the grain runs), and the block on the right is wide open, big rolling lumps.

So that's probably two XX blocks and one X grade block under most schemes. Mimmo grades by number, with 1 being well cut dense XX and 2 being just a little less amazing. 3 is actually selected for blasting due to wider rings and lower physical density.


So when we look at a Peterson Rosslare, or a Sherlock series pipe, we see a lot of fine tight grain, hopefully none or very few little pits, and basically a nice even presentation.

I can offer basically no correlation between grain density, orientation, growth rings.... in terms of how a pipe smokes.

 

[sasquatch]

Here's 3 XX out of Spain on the left, and 3 X on the right, you can again see weaker grain, or more poorly oriented. And there's a grade above both these yet if you want to pay for crazy tight stripes. But of these blocks, one might get a tremendous perfect smooth out of any of them, and a total cracked/pitted/whatever fail out of any of them too, buying wood of a certain grade doesn't make it flawless, that's where you have to learn who sells what, how often they fail vs price etc. And again, Peterson has the advantage in that they can buy 1000 blocks or 1000 turned pipe stummels, and just take the 10 nicest and make them whatever top-end line they like. A carver working a single piece is always hoping it's going to turn out.

 

[sasquatch]

FWIW I do think briar shows variability in how it smokes - I don't think every piece is identical. Just, I've failed to be able to generate a chart that shows what factors play into it.

 

[sasquatch]

See that little tiny fissure? Depending on where that goes, this block is maybe scrap (most likely just a very small pipe). But that's really expensive wood, just a bad piece of.

 

[dmcmtk]

View attachment 42070 See that little tiny fissure? Depending on where that goes, this block is maybe scrap (most likely just a very small pipe). But that's really expensive wood, just a bad piece of.

Sas, can't wait to see the lovely Cutty you make from that one.

 

[sparrowhawk]

Very informative, gents! Thanks for the illustrative info. (I wonder how a block with bird's eye would be classed.)

 

[Chasing Embers]

Very informative, gents! Thanks for the illustrative info. (I wonder how a block with bird's eye would be classed.)

That's just a block turned sideways.

 

[sasquatch]

Yes, you can find birdseye at the "end" of the grain, and some blocks will present big loose whorls and some will present dense, 3d looking birdseye. Lots of pieces are cut like that, cross-grain. Every block I've shown here is a standard shaped "Plateau" fearturing the crust of the burl, in a vertical presentation. Ebauchon pieces are cut from inside the burl, and better quality ones are birdseye on both sides.

 

[jpmcwjr]

As to smoking qualities there are differences. Briar can vary in density and porosity. Denser=heavier and less absorbent. More porous= lighter. These can vary from plot to plot, due to differences in rain fall, soil and light. And period of time in which it's grown.

Mineral content can differ based on soil. That may have some effect on how it smokes, but hard to fathom how.

Perhaps curing is a bigger factor in how the pipe actually smokes.

 

[sasquatch]

As to smoking qualities there are differences. Briar can vary in density and porosity. Denser=heavier and less absorbent. More porous= lighter. These can vary from plot to plot, due to differences in rain fall, soil and light. And period of time in which it's grown.

Mineral content can differ based on soil. That may have some effect on how it smokes, but hard to fathom how.

Perhaps curing is a bigger factor in how the pipe actually smokes.

The argument for this is that certain mills buy briar from all over the place, and produce a very uniform product from it - you cannot look at Mimmo's shipment and say "Ahh, this one is from Spain, this one here from Tuscany..." it all looks and acts more or less the same.

The argument against is that I have customers who demand/vastly prefer Spanish wood. I have customers who demand/vastly prefer Calabrian. I have customers who demand/vastly prefer Tuscan briar. And... I have customers who don't care one bit what briar I use, as long as it does whatever we're trying to do. So maybe it doesn't matter at all!

Myself, I dis-prefer the current Algerian, I think it has a spicy/cinnamon taste to it that never goes away. Italian and Greek supplies taste cleaner to me.

 

[sablebrush52]

Very informative, gents! Thanks for the illustrative info. (I wonder how a block with bird's eye would be classed.)

That doesn't figure into the classification

 

[doug535]

As Sas said, you can't tell from the outside what's going to be on the inside. For instance, take this Manno block from 2012, decent tight grain on the outside with NO pitting visible. After finding the crack while still on the lathe I decided to do some exploratory investigation to see how bad it really was.

 

[mso489]

I'm no pipe carver, briar harvester, briar trader, etc. I do have a somewhat wide range of pipes in terms of prices and names, up to the lower end of high end I guess. From that I would say, the carvers, whether artisan or factory crafts people, carefully grade briar and pay accordingly, but it is a subjective judgement. Mid-range pipes and even low-range, can turn up excellent briar. Mogen Johansen who does Johs pipes seems to get some primo briar for his moderately priced pipes, light weight and heat insulating. He does some rustication where needed, but it only accommodates what is superior material, I believe. That is one example among hundreds or thousands. And fine upper grade pipes can have a flaw and burn out. It's a guess, but many professionals are really good guessers, and not just the high-end guys.