I've looked for a thread about the safety of smoking sandalwood pipes on this site and online but I'm not finding anything definitive. I see these pipes everywhere. (I have briar, maple, hickory, pear, and corn cob pipes and love what each brings to the smoking experience.) But I'm wondering about the safety of sandalwood. Are these pipes safe or are they to be avoided like rosewood, ebony, oak, etc.?
Sandalwood Pipes
- Thread starter billjohnso20
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It is a potential allergen to inhale so I would personally stay away but others here may know more.
I didn't find it listed here. But smoke at your own risk? I don't care for any wood other than briar.
Toxicity chart
Toxicity chart
I would love one of those. I don't think I'd smoke it but it would be a good practice pipe. Put the pipe in your mouth and pretend to smoke.
I am not qualified to comment on the health/safety aspects of a sandalwood pipe but many members of the Santalaceae family of plants have qualities that would make them less than ideal for such use.
The question that I would ask myself is:
Is considering purchasing/using this pipe worth the risk, given the uncertainty that I already have?
If the answer is Yes; the first question that you should ask the manufacturer is:
Which sandalwood is this pipe made from?
The question that I would ask myself is:
Is considering purchasing/using this pipe worth the risk, given the uncertainty that I already have?
If the answer is Yes; the first question that you should ask the manufacturer is:
Which sandalwood is this pipe made from?
Personally, I would not buy one. In reality, can the wood be any more harmful than the tobacco? But then, would you want to add an additional risk? Just a thought.
There are precisely two woods that I’ll smoke from - briar and olive. I tried others. Didn’t go so well.
I’ve never had a tobacco treat me as badly as smoking it from a pear wood pipe.
I think briar is the only wood I've smoked. At least I don't remember any other wood.
Sandalwood seems like it would be far too soft, and the resin is quite flammable (half my family is from India, and it's used rather a lot in firey ways, but never as a thing to contain a fire). I suppose if it had a thick enough coating that it might as well be meerschaum then it might work, and would probably smell very nice the first few times you smoked it.
I have made pipes from Cherry and Walnut, and you absolutely have to coat or char them with a pencil-torch or similar. "Breaking in" a raw cherry pipe is an exceedingly unpleasant experience that takes some weeks to recover from. If you can draw more than once from a raw Walnut pipe then you have a cast iron mouth. I would expect a raw sandalwood pipe to be exceedingly acrid as the vaporized resin went into your mouth, and I would also expect the bowl to catch fire.
I have made pipes from Cherry and Walnut, and you absolutely have to coat or char them with a pencil-torch or similar. "Breaking in" a raw cherry pipe is an exceedingly unpleasant experience that takes some weeks to recover from. If you can draw more than once from a raw Walnut pipe then you have a cast iron mouth. I would expect a raw sandalwood pipe to be exceedingly acrid as the vaporized resin went into your mouth, and I would also expect the bowl to catch fire.
