Grade Versus Quality of Briar

[Briar Lee]

Often I use the term high grade and high quality to mean the same, but I think there is a differnce, between grades and qualities of briar.

Tonight I’ve removed the soft varnish, or shellac, from a late run push stem stamped star Lee Three Star grade Dublin, and the grade of the briar used was extremely high. It was cross cut, leaving extremely dense birdseye on the sides, and tight cross grain on front and back.

Yet the final quality of this pipe was low. There are several obvious fills, and color variations so great Lee used a brown varnish and putty to mask it.

Before stain removed:
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Or, should I describe it as a low grade of high quality briar?

 

[Waning Embers]

The fills would've disqualified it from high grade or quality regardless of the grain.

 

[craig61a]

How’s that old saying go, “You can’t polish a turd…”

 

[OzPiper]

Comoy had pipes which they classified as "Select Straight Grain" or "Specially Selected Straight Grain" which were "Specimen Straight Grain" (their highest grade) rejects.
Often their only flaw was a tiny fill or two (?sand pit).
Which often took some searching to uncover.

These were not considered worthy of the Comoy stamps, nor the 3-part "C" on the stem.
But were undeniably Comoy.

I have a few of these rejects. The grain of these rejects are far superior to my one and only Blue Riband.
And at a fraction of the cost.

I'd take them any day

 

[Briar Lee]

10 or 15 years earlier, when the push stem Three Star Dublin came out needing fills, it would have either been firewood or finished as a Briarlee.

But the grade, of the briar block fed into the fraising machine was one, two, three, four, or five star grade. I don’t think the grading system changed, but quality control slacked considerably at the end of Lee’s run.

 

[chopper]

What's the year of manufacture BL?

Several years ago a German ebay seller had a heap of NOS pipes from a 100+yo pipe shop that had closed.
I bought more than a few briars that were 50 to 100yo.
The main differences between those antique pipes and modern ones;
Better craftsmanship relating to 'lower end' pipes; every single antique briar I own takes a pipe cleaner through to the chamber.
The antique pipes tend to be smaller, generally speaking.
The briar used is significantly lighter than modern briar. [Why would that be? I have a theory . . . ]
Apart from high-end pipes [which I don't own any] craftsman did not seem to be as bothered about fills as they are today.
It would appear that these days, briar with little pits that were filled in the past, are now rusticated.

 

[Peterson314]

I do woodworking and we definitely have a distinction between high-grade and high-quality. High-grade is the material. High-quality is the craftsmanship. One doesn't mean the other. Often, High-quality craftsmen are going to use high-grade materials. But a High-quality craftsman can also get the most of a beautiful piece of wood even if the wood is flawed. I've filled many cracks, splits, and holes in high-quality furniture just because the wood was worth it.

As Craig61a said, you can't polish a turd. But you can hide a lot of shit in a meadow.

 

[Briar Lee]

For example, when Kaywoodie announced the addition of their $10 top grade Flame Grain in 1937, they ran advertisements that at the most, only a dozen blocks out of 5,000 made Flame Grain grade.

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I own two #13 Large Dublin 4 hole Flame Grains, exactly as the one in that advertisement.

The oldest one, has a bigger ball and no markings at all about briar. It was slab cut to reveal the flame grain, a more magnificent natural, unstained pipe cannot be imagined.

The later one, after Hitler invaded France, is marked Imported Briar with a small ball, also has superlative grain but it’s obviously and deeply stained. I doubt it was ordered that way. Stain covers a multitude of flaws. They’d picked through the best blocks by then.

Later on, the Flame Grain suffered along with the Super Grain and Drinkless as cost cutting measures were employed.

But until the end, the higher the grade the better the grain structure.

 

[sablebrush52]

High grade when applied to pipes in general is more a matter of price than grain. Certain carvers, who's production is deemed of the highest quality and therefore the highest prices, generally fall under the rubric of "high grade". Certainly there are gradings of quality determined by different makers, but that's a different thing than "high grade" in any market sense.

 

[burleybreath]

There was a time when nobody gave half a rat's ass whether there were fills in a pipe or not. Pipes were just something to smoke. So I've read, probably in The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris, or some such. Whether true or not, I have seen a Charatan back in the 1970s riddled with fills, at a very reputable brick & mortar in Columbus, Ohio. I couldn't believe it, and neither could the clerks, or whatever they were, tending the store when I called attention to it. I swear it, on a stack of Pipes & Tobacco magazines. Strange, because another thing I heard was that Dunhill didn't give half a gonad about grain until Charatan, in effect, shamed them with generally superior grain. What is my point? Not sure I have one. Pipes are just vegetable material, aren't they?

 

[Briar Lee]

Until 1946, Kaywoodie’s highest regularly cataloged pipe was the $10 Flame Grain. A middle 1930s $15 Straight Grain failed in the market.

But a 1946 Flame Grain, although still flashy, wasn’t a 1937 Flame Grain. The best of the best of the best of the briar found in 400 year old huge burls the size of television or radio consoles was used up, forever gone.

In 1946 a brand new company in New York City cataloged a $25 pipe. By the time this 5 pointed inlaid gold star Five Star Lee was made a few years later, Kaywoodie cataloged a $15 Connoisseur, a $20 Ninety Fiver, and a $25 Centennial.

But even this $25 Five Star, was cross cut.

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I was the first man to smoke it, and when new old stock it was a light brown, unstained.

High grade briar seems to darken, with use.

It’s an excellent, but not extraordinarily good smoker, except it smokes as cool as if made of asbestos.

 

[Jef]

I watched a video on a man that is well known for his cut blocks of briar. Artisan pipe makers are on a waiting list to get them. This guy explains how he looks at the wood and how he decides to make his cuts. Seems to be how this man makes his living so my assumption is that he really knows what he is doing.

So lets say you are one of these artisan pipe makers and you get your order. You select a block and start making your pipe. As you are peeling away the wood and your pipe is almost ready for final finishing you discover two pin holes in the beautifully shaped stummel. What do you do? You paid top price for the block. You worked so hard to get to this point. In my eyes you have no choice but to fill the imperfections. You have no way of seeing underneath the wood that will be shaved away.

The grade (which to me is the excellence of the grain and density of the briar) and the quality (which to me is how the wood is cured, drilled, and the skill of the carvers work). And let's dont forget the skill of making the stem. Selecting the best material along with drilling and shaping.

Those that have been around pipes for a time can recognize good briar and good work. For me, if I am happy with what I see, and it meets my expectations, then my selection is of good grade and quality.

jef