What are some other types of wood that can be used in making pipes? I have seen Olive wood and Rosewood. Are these good woods? What are they good for?


Thanks,
Lucky

The two off the top of my head that you haven't mentioned would be cherry-wood (which IMHO really brings out the flavor of Latakia) and bog-oak which I think Trevor Talbert calls morta.

I have Olive, Rose, Maple, and Cherry (my great grandfather's pipe). All smoke very well. I do prefer to smoke aromatics (what little of them I smoke!), in the maple. FTRPLT

One of the best smoking pipes that I have is a Perry Poker carved out of NC Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel was actually used by a few of the major pipe manufacturers during WWII when Briar was scarce.

http://www.perryspipesandrepair.com/index.htm

Mountain Laurel is very similar to the Tree Heath (Erica arborea) (Briar) in wood quality as far as density and hardness.

JP...Good find on Perry's website. The Raleigh and Winston-Salem papers had nice articles on this guy about a year ago. My family saved them for me. Hopefully, he will be at TAPS in April or maybe I/we can catch him at the State Fair in October! FTRPLT

Thanks for the input guys!


Are these other woods any less resistant to heat and burnout than regular briar pipe? What makes briar superior to other woods?




Thanks,
Lucky

I haven't had any problem with the Mountain Laurel and it seems to smoke exactly like Briar to me.

I also have a couple of Cherry Wood pipes that were made my Mike Brissett (Pipemaker) and they smoke very well, much like Briar to me. One positive aspect that I have noticed with Cherry Wood is that when they do heat up, they seem to cool back down at a faster rate than Briar. I don't know why that is, it is just my observation.

IMHO olive wood bowls tend to get hotter quicker than briar. They are also a little heavier than a briar. Cherry wood might be a little lighter. As far as burn out goes I would think that briar would tend to burn out more so than the other two. Reason being, the hidden imperfections (i.e. sand pits) that can be in a briar block. Olive wood and cherry wood is not a root type of wood so you will not see any of these type of imperfections that could cause a burnout. The only pipe I have had a burn out on was a briar, and it was on a new pipe. Showed up after about the fifth smoke. When you look inside the bowl you can see where the sand pit is.