Ruminations on Why Better Briar Smokes Better

[PipeIT]

I think we could know more about the wood we are buying and make wiser choices, that could ultimately lead to know somewhat, what briar a carver is using, so we’ll be better informed if it’s going to better.

I know I’m not Mimmo, so the questions I’m thinking to myself.

1. Quality of briar being dug out of the ground.

2. The curing/preparation process, how much does it matter, in what ways it’s being done.

And whatever anyone else can think of, that is suppose to be of benefit.

Now, how many carvers can we actually go to, and ask them where their briar came from, and how things were done in regards to the briar.

SO, at this point in time, it’s clear to see how a lot of us our guessing, but, if he had more information shared with consumers, that maybe in time, we’d start to know these things, as a more exact science.

Hmm ?

 

[Searock Fan]

I tend to believe that the quality of the pipe makes as much difference as the tobacco. The same blend can taste completely different it two different pipes. Just try telling that to a new pipe smoker. They won't understand or believe it and just have to find out for themselves.

 

[burleybreath]

How much animal urine does it take to affect the curing of briar? Or more to the point, the taste? Where are these blocks aged, and how are they stored? I see a barn somewhere in my imagination, riddled with cobwebs and critters of all kinds. (The barn, not my imagination, you savages!) Maybe urine improves the wood? I've heard stories--not reliable, of course, just small talk by drunks in old-time B&Ms.

 

[didimauw]

Nah, the bigger the cake the better the briar!!!!

 

[PipeIT]

Did someone say Cake?

Big Cake coming up! LOL ?

 

[sasquatch]

Some pipes smoke better than others. It's physics, and the physics includes the smoking media, the wood, for sure. But the idea that some particular type of briar smokes better than some other type... man, that's a tough go when you test it out. Every time you think it's a certain cut, a certain density, a certain region, you can find a really great pipe that is not that thing.

I don't know any serious pipe maker who would grab a block and say "Ahh, this one here will smoke better than this one here..." If we could, we would. We'd all fight over the "good smoking" briar. But there's just... no such grade.

Most of my best in-use pipes are rusticated, I have no idea what the briar looks like. I guess it was pretty ugly, cuz it got rusticated.

It's fun to think about and wish for, but as far as magic briar goes... I'll take well-drilled briar and good quality stem work any day.

 

[Papamique]

Some pipes smoke better than others. It's physics, and the physics includes the smoking media, the wood, for sure. But the idea that some particular type of briar smokes better than some other type... man, that's a tough go when you test it out. Every time you think it's a certain cut, a certain density, a certain region, you can find a really great pipe that is not that thing.

I don't know any serious pipe maker who would grab a block and say "Ahh, this one here will smoke better than this one here..." If we could, we would. We'd all fight over the "good smoking" briar. But there's just... no such grade.

Most of my best in-use pipes are rusticated, I have no idea what the briar looks like. I guess it was pretty ugly, cuz it got rusticated.

It's fun to think about and wish for, but as far as magic briar goes... I'll take well-drilled briar and good quality stem work any day.

Thanks. As I read this thread I remember reading some of your posts over the years attesting to the fact that it is hard if not impossible to know who uses what briar from which region due to a number of factors. How about curing Sasquatch? I believe it does matter but to what extent? Do you have to dry it out? Even if you use a bowl coating (which if it is still true you do not)? I hear that really old and dry briar is harder to work with and is chippy (technical term) so does it matter if it has been cured at all? If so, what is the minimum air dry time? I hear of some companies drying it out for less than a year but of course the mill does dry and cure it before hand but was that always the case? Like in the 50-60’s when Dr. Graybow and the likes were pumping them out by the zillions?
Sorry for the slew of questions but these are things I have always wondered among others but I’ll save the rest for another post.

 

[Briar Lee]

Pictures or it didn't happen! You can't brag without proof! Let's see her!

 

[Papamique]

View attachment 157561

Miracle indeed!!

 

[rmpeeps]

This afternoon I was trying to smoke my pipes on my back porch {deck} and it was stifling hot.

I looked at my phone and it was 97 in the shade.

All those Lees were spread out in front of me, sort of baking in the heat. I thought this isn’t as much fun as it was, and went inside my ice cold garage.

The best looking woman I’ll ever see in all my life was inside. The first time she came up to me 22 years ago I wondered why some super model was in Cabela’s in Mitchell South Dakota. She’s been typing my papers and scheduling my calendar and raising our kids ever since. I’m a lucky man.

She smiled and asked me, if something she was typing was all right, and it was when I read it.

I reached for a Lee Three Star that has just gorgeous grain, filled it with cherry cavendish and fired it up.

She asked if that pipe tasted as good as it smelled, and I said probably better.

A really pretty pipe tastes better.

Better briar has tighter grain, but most of the reason better briar tastes better, is we are so glad we own such a pretty, shining thing as that, you know?

It’s mostly in our heads, but it’s real anyway.

Nearly my best smoking pipe is curiously my first pipe. A no-name Imported Briar. It burns anything well. It’s a cross grain with mostly possum grain on one side. When it’s nice and dry it clinks like clay when I rattle a pipe nail in it.
This better briar cost my $15 and I just would not sell it, or even trade it for a Lee.

 

[PipeIT]

Here @Papamique if you haven’t read these before.

How Briar Curing Works: History, Methods, and Benefits | Smokingpipes.com

Learn more about the history, methods, and benefits traditional briar curing and how the process ensures optimum smoking qualities

www.smokingpipes.com

What Makes a Good Briar Pipe - Pipedia

pipedia.org

 

[Briar Lee]

Miracle indeed!!

She died her hair blonde to ride shotgun in my Mark VIII Lincoln to Memphis Tennessee where we saw the parade of ducks at the Peabody Hotel.

I’d spent the previous twenty years with a woman who’d not walk across the street with me without complaining, my hillbilly accent embarrassed her.

And she, was raised hillbilly the same as me!

My new girl told me her last husband would never allow her to dye her hair blonde, because blondes were trashy, he said.

I sorta liked, the idea of a blonde bombshell riding with me to Memphis, I really did.

She became a brunette again on her own when we came back, but do you know how cheap hair dye is?

You can buy a sack full for next to nothing.

That calls, for a song my mother taught me long ago.

 

[Papamique]

Here @Papamique if you haven’t read these before.

How Briar Curing Works: History, Methods, and Benefits | Smokingpipes.com

Learn more about the history, methods, and benefits traditional briar curing and how the process ensures optimum smoking qualities

www.smokingpipes.com

What Makes a Good Briar Pipe - Pipedia

pipedia.org

Thank you. I have read those before.

 

[anotherbob]

What was she doing in Cabela's?

looking for a lawyer apperantly.

 

[Briar Lee]

Nearly my best smoking pipe is curiously my first pipe. A no-name Imported Briar. It burns anything well. It’s a cross grain with mostly possum grain on one side. When it’s nice and dry it clinks like clay when I rattle a pipe nail in it.
This better briar cost my $15 and I just would not sell it, or even trade it for a Lee.

View attachment 157568

Think for a minute of the long boring life of a briar.

They sort of start life as a tumor on the root of a shrub that if the shrub grew in the Ozarks it would get poisoned by a farmer with Remedy.

But after fifty or a hundred years of growing slowly on that root in the cold, cold ground, on top of a rocky hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, a bowl legged little man with an axe chops off the tumor and then bags him and takes him down the mountain.

Eventually the poor briar winds up being sold like a pig running through a sale barn.

Then, by some miraculous process, Adam Smith delivers the briar to the craftsman, and the briar is resurrected into something glorious to behold.

But the craftsmen must select good briar.

There’s bad briar.

He must avoid the bad, and select the good ones.

 

[jpmcwjr]

And they do. But selecting the better and best over the good is not always possible.

 

[Briar Lee]

And they do. But selecting the better and best over the good is not always possible.

The best might become Five Star Lees, the worst a Gold Coast.

Or the best earn a white spot, the worst are stamped Parker.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

looking for a lawyer apperantly.

A shotgun and a lawyer.

 

[Briar Lee]

A shotgun and a lawyer.

Why, is the shotgun a more noble arm for a man to own and master, than a rifle or pistol?

Try hitting a pheasant with a rifle or pistol.

A good shotgun entitles the owner to have good companions who can celebrate the opener of pheasant season and then get up and go out at the crack of noon to shoot a few birds to justify the trip.

 

[anotherbob]

A shotgun and a lawyer.

a lady with a plan. Either think if one doesn't solve the other or the first solves the problem and the second solves the problem created by the first. Either way... Gotta love a lady with a plan.