Why is Briar the Wood of Choice?

[toobfreak]

I agree with Brian--- briar is the best thing out there most close to how meerschaum smokes, plus it has the natural deep beauty of the grain and you don't have to worry about dropping it! No one can say one is better, but we are so lucky to have both materials to choose from.

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

Meer and Briar are great but I have owned and smoked out of all kinds of wooden pipes. During the war American manufacturers used native Briar(laurel and manzanita) and, if I recall correctly, Stanwell used Beech. There are probably more examples. Hickory is fine, White Oak, Cherry, Olive, most nut and fruit woods... I have an Apple pipe which provides an excellent smoke, but it doesn't look as good as Briar, smoke as nice as Meer, and is less likely to hit the century mark than those two materials.

 

[deathmetal]

Briar trees don't vote.

 

[rapskar]

I may not know about pipes, but I know about plants, and heath (the plant where briar comes from) is native to my homeland.
It belongs to a group of plants called pyrophytes which are adapted to survive fire in different forms. Some have seeds that will only come out after strong heat, some have a very resistant bark to retard ignition (that's where cork comes from) and others have roots that are incredibly hard to burn and are able to resprout after fire, that's heath's strategy.
Plants are amazing.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I think the pipe fairies have something to do with it. Perhaps they sprinkle some of their magic dust on the heath tree which helps with the heat resistance and how well it produce such lovely grain. I've mentioned pipe fairies a few times... in my post here... http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/why-do-pipes-have-a-personality ... I go into a bit more detail on these wonderful beings that help us so much in our favorite past time. :mrgreen: