Is there any correlation between the beauty of the grain and how well a pipe smokes?
For example, do you think that this pipe would be a great smoker?
http://www.thepiperack.com/images/pipes/italian/jcno260_cu.jpg
I vaguely recall reading somewhere that briar with nice tight grain made a beautiful pipe that was more likely not a good smoker.
True or false?
Bub

Most likely, no connection whatsoever. Almost any other factor you could come up with beside prettiness would weigh more heavily in the balance.

All other things being equal (and they never are), assuming proper seasoning, country of briar (not necessarily pipe) origin would (IMHO), along with engineering, loom largest.

As in when Dunhill stopped being able to use Algerian and Italian briar, after a while, people started fixating on the old ones they'd made of these in preference to newer ones.

Then again, maybe it's all just a head trip.

Briar affects the smoke, for sure. But not grain, as such.

Briar that is well selected and well cured (boiled so the resins are removed and dried very slowly) will smoke much better than lesser grade stuff, or poorly cured stuff.

So assuming that two blocks of briar are treated the same, and come from the same plant, the ugly grained block will smoke the same as the good grain block.

Grain is an indicator of quality only so much as that it is very tough to have a really nice grain with a really serioius flaw (a spongey section, say, or a big pocket). So a pipe with really nice straight grain and no flaws indicates a nice cut of briar from a plant that didn't have issues, and hopefully the thing is cured right and drilled right!

A pipe with perfect grain will handle heat evenly, and be a nicely behaved pipe. A pipe with horrible looking grain CAN do the same, but it's probably not guaranteed that way it is with better looking stuff.

But here's a pipe that failed - nice grain, Algerian block - would have been a beauty, but I just happened to drill it right where there was a fairly large pit - goes all the way to the bowl, and wasn't visible till the last second.



Darn thing fooled me.

The other thing to watch for is stain coming all the way through to the inside of the bowl - that indicates very soft, porous briar. A lot of manufacturers hide this by either staining or coating the bowl.

If a pipe is drilled well and built well, with well cured briar, it will out-smoke a poorly crafted pipe made from the best. When you get both - you get a great pipe.


The pipe in the link? It'll be a great pipe if it is mechanically correct, which it very likely is. The Italians make great pipes.

Dang, Todd, I hope that isn't the pipe you're working on for me?!? I don't recall wanting a "carb hole" when we discussed the style.

Natch

Hey, you don't even pay for the extra hole, this time.

Boy.... try to do a guy a favor....

I think Yak is right. It's a all a head trip.

IMO, grain or lack thereof or its orientation on the pipe has absolutely no effect on how a pipe will smoke.

As for country of origin, ,most briar cutters buy from all over the Med. region, and when it's cut and boiled it's all mixed together and then seperated according to size and grade, not country of origin.

There's no way of knowing which country a particular block came from.

The thing that will most affect the briar's smoking quality is its curing. Great grain is simply a beauty/rarity thing.

Rad

My understanding is also that grain doesn't matter as long as it is present. But absence of grain indicates absence of porosity, which is undesirable in pipes. Therefore, I avoid pipes that have flat areas devoid of visible grain.

Rad wrote

Quote:

Most of the time bald areas are actually softer and more porous than tightly grained areas,

Quote:

I had a squashed tomato once that was almost totally devoid of grain. I rusticated it and sold it at a show to very experienced pipe smoker who told me that it was one of those pipes that smoked great from the start and got better and better the more he smoked it. One of those "magical" pipes.

Doesn't this imply that:
1.tightly grained pipes are not as porous as other pipes
2.pipes that are porous are good smokers

The reason I am asking these questions is because I have a beautiful Tonni Jacono pipe with beautiful straight grain, but it just doesn't seem to smoke that well.

Thanks,
Bub

Bub, I would look a lot more at what the drilling is like in that pipe of yours. How much space between the tenon and the bottom of the mortise, the shape of the tenon, the size of the airway... even the stem itself could be too restricted, for instance. The briar is probably not to blame, all things being equal.

Even "porous" briar is insanely dense wood, and it really won't be absorbing much more moisture than non porous briar. (There is also hard and soft (male and female, I think) briar which I've heard arguments for and against (each!)).

There is a limit to HOW porous or soft- if you go outside ordinary boundaries, you will get a pipe that burns out, and that's why some pipes DO burn out - a bad spot, not up to the job.

I've made pipes out of briar so hard it made me angry, and they've smoked great, and I've made pipes (and purchased pipes) with much softer briar, and they smoke fine too. If it's cured well, it'll work.

Some smokers will swear that heavy, dense briar makes the best smokers. Others will tell you that the wood should feel very light for its size to get the best smokers.

Some folks swear that cross grains offer a superior smoke to straight grains. Not only that, but front to back cross grains smoke better than side to side cross grains.

Some say that if the briar smells like freshly baked bread when it's being drilled, it will indeed be a great smoker.

One smoker's favorite brand/maker will be the one that another smoker will avoid.

The list goes on and on about what makes a pipe a good smoker. A pipe maker can only do so much. The rest is up to the wood and what's known as Ju-Ju.

The plain truth is that some pipes smoke better than others.

Rad

this discussion resembles a discussion of women ,,,various types, heavy or light for its size, soft or hard, country of origin, aroma while being drilled, porous or dense,,,,never mind,,,,,,,,,,

One of my all time best smoking pipes is a circa 1970's Hardcastle 'Cabinet Selection' 120 bent. The pipe has NO grain on it what so ever! It looks like a brown stained easter egg! Great grain makes ZERO difference in the taste of the smoke. It meerly makes the pipe more interesting to look at!

I strongly disagree with DPG, pipes with grain in exact uniforminty of pattern deviating no more than .7mm in any area of the pipe, carved of Algerian Heath Briar, in Denmark, with a lucite bit will outsmoke any inferior pipe.

Or

Grain,Drilling,Stain,Name,stem material, nationality of carver, etc etc etc DO NOT guarantee a good smoking pipe.
As mentioned these things do increase the odds of a quality smoke, but in no way insure anything.

We had this discussion on the Knox Cigar board a few dozen times.. I think we concluded that you can find great 'baskets' and lousy 'One-offs'.. Just the odds are against you in both cases.