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Once again, I emphasize that some of the displayed pipes are in my own personal collection. Some are my deepest desire to own someday. This also holds true for some of the briar pipes shown here.

   Some particularly fine grained Briar is left uncut in larger pieces called "plates", used for larger freehand pipes. When harvested, Briar contains considerable moisture, sap, and resin. The ebauchons and plates are boiled in water for several hours to remove much of the sap and resin. This is followed by long periods of drying (up to two years) so that all traces of moisture are removed from the wood. 

  This careful curing and aging process is of the utmost importance in bringing out the finest smoking qualities of a briar pipe. It allows the pipe to breathe, to absorb moisture and

oil from the tobacco, assuring a cool, dry smoke. Once the curing process is completed, the briar is ready to be shaped into pipe bowls.  A variety of hand and machine operations are necessary to complete this shaping process. Generally, the more handwork that goes into the carving of the pipe, the higher the price. 

More and more pipe information on the following page.

 

  Once the bowls are shaped, they are fitted with mouthpieces or stems (either Vulcanite or Lucite), hand finished, stained, polished, and waxed. The new pipe is now ready to give many years of smoking enjoyment.

          

 

Some very important words for those of you (and myself) who want to know what kind of artistic talent is needed to be a successful pipe maker. Pipe connoisseurs all agree that the single factor that comes closest to guaranteeing exceptionally fine smoking characteristics in a pipe is fully dry, aged briar.

After harvesting, the briar is cut into blocks and boiled, usually in water, to remove the sap and resin. From a moisture-content standpoint, drying is complete in six to twelve months.

Briar however, is a living wood that changes and improves as time passes. As the briar ages, its color deepens to a rare reddish-brown from the light birch color of most fresh wood. It becomes harder and develops a transparency that allows light to be reflected at various angles from levels slightly beneath the surface. 

Light dancing within the surface is what gives aged pipes and briar that rare, shimmering iridescence. It is possible to speed up the drying process, but true aging comes only with time, requiring at least five to ten years.

Unfortunately for pipe lovers, economics prohibit large scale storage of briar and mass production of pipes from briar that has aged ten or more years. 

Occasionally an extremely old batch of briar or unfinished pipes turn up --  a GI buys a bag in Italy at the end of WWII to make pipes when he returns

home, but the briar sits in his attic for nearly forty years; a small, third generation French manufacturer comes across several dozen bowls that were turned 50 years ago; a pipe factory closes down, selling hundreds of dozens of unfinished pipes and bowls to a retailer who spends 25 years working single-handedly at finishing the pipes, but with many remaining when he decides to retire.

The raw material

Briar pipes are made from the root of the heath tree (Erica Arborea) which grows in the Mediterranean regions - Corsica, Albania, Sardinia, Southern France and Italy, Algeria and Greece.

In order to exist in the climate of long, hot summers and cool showery winters, the tree develops large thick roots, which grow deep into the rocky soil, and are very close-grained and hard.  The tree grows very slowly, and the best root for pipe making may be 60 to 100 years old.

Pipe manufacturers purchase the right to remove the shrub growing in specific areas of land from the Government or the Owner. The diggers excavate the roots, cut away cracked and rotten portions, and transport the pieces to the collecting point where they are stacked and covered with earth to keep them moist. The individual digger is paid according to the weight of briar he has collected. As we go up the price and quality scale in prestige pipe collecting, (which is constantly changing), you may notice that the manufacturer has added something to the pipe to make it even more attractive.

A better, more complicated finish enhancing the grain, a better quality mouthpiece for both appearance and comfort in the mouth, a little decoration or insignia in brass or sterling silver in recognition of its quality.   

A Prestige Pipe may undergo as many as 30 finishing operations and can take over 2 months to complete. It must be remembered though, that these decorations, or the pattern of the grain, are purely cosmetic.

They do not affect the smoking quality of the pipe to any great degree. What is important to the smoking quality is that the briar be properly cured and dried (bowls with good graining will respond better to

 

those processes) and then that the pipe be properly made by skilled people. 

The metamorphosis from the rough ebauchon to the finished product is akin to that of a caterpillar to a butterfly.

The demand for Prestige Pipes is testimony to the fact that they are appreciated for their rarity, beauty of the grain and smoking quality.

They are always in short supply - testing the integrity of the manufacturer, but a top quality manufacturer will not lower his standards. Are they worth the extra price?
 

       

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