The Quality of the Briar

[fitzy]

Hell I've got a pipe from a highly reputable carver that had it's draft hole drilled too low. The pipe is beautiful but gurgles no matter how it's smoked or what tobacco is smoked in it.
So my question is do you have a better chance of not hitting a dude from a higher priced brand? So are you going to have less odds of a bad pipe from Castello vs Ropp? I think some manufacturers are less likely to release subpar pipes than others. Not to bash Peterson but I've got a mid grade pipe made recently that the stummel was clearly drilled for a filter but the stem matched with it was not for a filter.

 

[pipesmokingtom]

I'll jump in and be "that" guy.
If you want near 100% consistency and reliability, buy a cob.
If you want to roll the dice and buy with a degree of concern for aesthetics, purchase a good-looking briar that appears to be engineered well and hope for the best, nomenclature be damned.
As Jesse said, it's 75% how you smoke it anyway.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

My almost a brand new Peterson aran 80S half bent keeps gurgling no matter what tobacco is in it,however the drafthole in this particular pipe is similarly drilled as those in so called dry system peterson pipes,upwards,

second thing what is interesting to notice why the hell its so difficult to make mortise/stem alignement properly so to say without being off line, and many lowerend manufacturers are seemingly facing difficulties in finishing stem bite zone button leaving them clumsy and poorly filed(high)

 

[georged]

why the hell its so difficult to make mortise/stem alignement properly so to say without being off line, and many lowerend manufacturers are seemingly facing difficulties in finishing stem bite zone button leaving them clumsy and poorly filed(high)

Because producing precise work takes good tools, skill, and practice... and when those things are translated into manufacturing terms they spell e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e.

 

[jefff]

^^^^ Thats why I can't see spending 200 on a Pete when for another 75.00 or 100.00 you can get any number of folks to make you a really nice pipe.
And you get to support a craftsman.
Win/win

 

[aldecaker]

I believe wholeheartedly in Jesse's 75/25 theory.

 

[fitzy]

^^^^ Thats why I can't see spending 200 on a Pete when for another 75.00 or 100.00 you can get any number of folks to make you a really nice pipe.

Absolutely. You can also end up with a dud regardless of who made it.
I got a fantastic pipe from Zach. The attention to detail on the button and slot alone is amazing.
I'm really looking forward to my pipes from Adam (Clickclick) and Ryan Alden.

 

[sablebrush52]

I know a pipe maker who, as an experiment, boiled near-finished stummels in alcohol---in a pressure cooker---for an hour to drive out every speck of yuk in the wood it was humanly possible to remove.

How did they smoke? Fantastically well. The balsa-light wood ignited almost as easily as the tobacco, and the room filled with briar smoke in seconds.

Of course they did. He also boiled out a significant amount of the briar's embedded silicate content, which is needed to keep the wood from flaming up like...well...wood.

 

[sasquatch]

I spent years hunting briar. I've tried it all, every region, every mill. It's all briar, is what I've found.
My correlation charts between grain, ring density, density by weight, color, region and mill.... all garbage.
Occassionally you'll get a bad piece of wood - I've seen one or two that literally stunk in... 500 pipes or so now.
"The stem is the pipe, the pipe is the stem". You'd hear this whispered in the dark corners of the carving community. I frankly didn't believe it.
For a whole pile of reasons, I'm pretty close to that now, and I think most of us "students" of how to build a smoking pipe would agree. Broadly speaking, the engineering and construction of a pipe will dictate far more how it smokes than the actual briar source. Are there better and worse pieces of briar? It seems that way, but the trouble is, we have a tough time making that judgment objectively because each pipe has its own stem and its own set of construction parameters. So while a guy might say "I had a pipe from brand X and it didn't smoke good so I think the briar was under-cured (or over cured, or harvested in sunlight or whatever)" the truth is, the pipe probably doesn't smoke all that well, and there's probably a few identifiable features in the construction of the pipe that lead it to do so.
I am the chaser of the magic smoke, I take all this stuff VERY seriously. And ten years in now just about.... I dont care where the hell I get my briar EXCEPT that some sources have a lot more flaws than others, so they wind up being more difficult to work with. I currrently have wood from 2 spanish supplies, 2 greek, and 2 Italian in my shop. And some Algerian but I don't prefer it - it's softer than I like and has a lot of pits.
The stem IS the pipe.

 

[saintpeter]

Sigh. I am surprised nobody has made a pipe out of Coprolite yet. Hmmm...I better check.

 

[pipesmokingtom]

Sigh. I am surprised nobody has made a pipe out of Coprolite yet. Hmmm...I better check.

Give the hipsters a little more time. It'll happen.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Too late.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/132175588071?_mwBanner=1

 

[aldecaker]

Is that the Dunhill you like, or the one you don't like?

 

[pipesmokingtom]

:clap:

 

[saintpeter]

Chasing Embers....that is disturbing on soooooo many levels. Not the least of which is I bookmarked it in case they have another one to buy.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Is that the Dunhill you like, or the one you don't like?

That would be a prehistoric "Dunghill". :rofl:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Chasing Embers....that is disturbing on soooooo many levels. Not the least of which is I bookmarked it in case they have another one to buy.

I did too! :rofl:

 

[agnosticpipe]

What's the old saying? I might not know much about art, but I know what I like. I'm pretty much that way with pipes. I've read a lot about briar, and I still can't say I understand what I've read and how it applies to the pipes I buy. I will say that both Jesse and George pretty much nailed the way I feel about the pipes I smoke. How it feels in the mouth is one of the important factors that makes a difference to me. Here's an example; a few weeks ago I bought a Heritage Heirloom pipe that was made in the 1960s by Kaywoodie to compete with Dunhill. The pipe cost me less than $25 and is one of the best smoking pipes I have. Why? Because it's just made right, and Kaywoodie put some real thought into the manufacture of the bowl, shank and stem, which is hand cut. About six months ago I bought a new Briar Works Icarus pipe from an eBay seller that was almost half price. I had read a bit about them and what the makers were trying to accomplish, and thought I'd try one. I no sooner got it and smoked it, that I went and bought another. The pipes are obviously a factory made pipe, but the fit and finish were done by someone that understood pipes. Why? Again, because the pipe is made right, and they took some time to finish the stem into a comfortable bit, even if it's lucite. These three pipes have brought me a lot of smoking satisfaction, not so much because of the briar, but because they were well made standard pipe shapes. Not expensive, or fancy, just good pipes. That's not to say that expensive fantastical looking pipes can't smoke good, but my priorities are about my budget and what works best for me. What's the other old saying? Smoke what you like, and like what you smoke! Good night Gracie....

 

[fitzy]

I think this one would make a great pipe. It's already shaped well.

 

[jpmcwjr]

So while a guy might say "I had a pipe from brand X and it didn't smoke good so I think the briar was under-cured (or over cured, or harvested in sunlight or whatever)" the truth is, the pipe probably doesn't smoke all that well, and there's probably a few identifiable features in the construction of the pipe that lead it to do so.

I am one guy who posited that two bent Aran's with P marking didn't smoke great when bought, but after many bowls came into their own, and therefor the problem could have been that the briar still had excess moisture, which was driven out by smoking dry and completely to the bottom. So the construction was ok.
But this is one point of reference in a complex field, and is theory on my part.
I guess I believe that with identical briar, workmanship makes the superior smoker, and with identical workmanship, superior briar is going to win out. Problems are identifying before the fact what is superior briar, and after the fact, what makes it superior, which will vary from smoker to smoker.