Smoking Briar vs Meerschaum Pipes

[Chasing Embers]

A Pipe?

Instead of an effigy pipe, make a modern dhaped one.

 

[hyperstar]

I would say, if your finances permit, try using both materials. Every time you use it alternately, they will give you different feelings.

Even if you have smoked the same pipe hundreds of times. Once you go back to it again after smoking other pipes, you will discover something new that you never noticed before.

 

[didimauw]

I go in spurts. Usually stretches of just briar, then totally switch to meers for a couple weeks, then back to briar lol

 

[denholrl]

You don't want to let a cake build up in a Meerschaum. They are more likely to crack due to an overly-thick cake than are briars. I scrape my Meerschaum bowls after each smoke.

 

[PipeIT]

You have my sincerest envy. I can't even get cake to build in briars. I'm thinking I may smoke too slowly. Even the oldest new briar I got in '92 shows little sign of it and I've never used a reamer or sandpaper on pipes I've bought unsmoked.

The briar from '92.
View attachment 272893

This fellow didn't get this dark from seldom smoking it since 2020.
View attachment 272894

But little to no buildup and I can't blacken a meerschaum rim to save my life.
View attachment 272895

I have noticed that wet aromatics dissolve what buildup I've had though.

I also smoke slowly, just barely lighting, a few sips, then let it go out and cool, down.

My Radice Rind Straight of two years has no cake build up, and not even a 1 mm layer of carbon too throughout the entire chamber after two years. I’m still trying to get a nice layer all they way through, it’s only somewhat formed on the top half.

I also notice, when I’ve smoked about 3/4 of the bowl, if I have to much fire, and smoke it a little to much with only 1/4 bowl left, I always get, what I would describe as a Deep Stewed Cherry flavor from the briar. Which makes me wonder, because the wood doesn’t have a good carbon layer, so possibly the reason(s) for tasting briar towards the bottom. hmm

So, when I get to the last 1/4, so I can still smoke/enjoy the rest, I make sure to light even less, and puff even slower so I don’t get this taste.