If it ain't briar (or is it?)

[Zerozeddy]

I bought this from eBay charity shop, thinking if it was rubbish and I threw it away it was still a donation.

It's my first non-corn-cob pipe. It seems very very light, and very very shiny. Suspiciously light and shiny.

I have no particular grumbles about how it smokes as I have no knowledge or experience wrt what to expect or look for. The brand is a snuff manufacturer but the shop in Cov Gdn doesn't exist any more, so you'd hope not complete rubbish.

I guess my beginnery question is, is briar a very light wood? Or have I bought some plastic nonsense?

 

[SmokingInTheWind]

That looks like a nice briar pipe to me. I was surprised at how light a briar pipe is when I handled one for the first time. I hope someone with knowledge of the brand will chime in with more specifics on what company actually made the pipe for M&W.

Mullins & Westley - Pipedia

pipedia.org

 

[andrew]

It's hard to say by looking at it. A new pipe is shiny, it has wax, it's buffed. If it smokes hot no matter what I would lean towards it's wood but not briar. I do have a pipe that has a similar look, and it isn't plastic, it's wood, bit it isn't briar.

 

[sardonicus87]

Briar is definitely not heavy, especially compared to something like a meer. I've never had an alternative wood pipe to compare (fruit wood, oak, morta, etc), but they are pretty light generally (for "standard/average" size pipes).

The shiny looks like it's lacquered (maybe not with actual lacquer, but some kind of hard finish like lacquer, shellac, etc).

Otherwise, it looks like briar to me.

 

[Waning Embers]

Mullins & Westley are definitely briar by everything I can find on them. Density varies from pipe to pipe, wait until you find a strawberry wood one of similar size. The strawberry wood is feather light by comparison.

 

[Sig]

It LOOKS like briar.
I have some briar pipes where the stem is 50% of the weight.
At least it seems that way.
Very old briar that has "seasoned" for many years can be very lightweight.
Besides that it doesn't burn easily, briar is used because it's lightweight too.

 

[Alejo R.]

This is briar in the new Charatans color style and also shape.
This pipe came from the same French factory as the new Charatans.

 

[Alejo R.]

 

[anotherbob]

Mullins was a tobacconist. And they don't make snuff. Their snuffs at least at one point were made by Wilson of Sharrow.

 

[Gerald Boone]

Every now and again I smoke my pipe in such a way that it gets very very hot; if it was plastic it would melt in my hand. If it was cheap wood it would be burnt. But no that pipe of mine just does it's job like the miracle of Italian engineering it is. I would say, my friend smoke and enjoy that beautiful pipe I believe it is as good on the inside as it is on the outside.