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Carl, I think you might have a misconception about briar. It is a densely straight grained hardwood. The term briar is an English bastardization of a French word, bruyere, and refers to the root ball/burl of the (mostly) Mediterranean white heath tree. It's not the root of the scraggly, thorny shru...

The general form of the argument is that briar is boiled to remove a lot of yucky sap/resins so it is flavor-neutral. Other woods are not. Many woods contain oils/esters/resins that are allergy sensitizers or outright allergens or outright poisons. Heating these oils up and sucking on the vapors is...

Made one from iroko years ago when I new even less and just made pipes from everything I thought could work. Smoked OK and grain was just marvellous, sort of golden pinstripes. But rather don't use it for a pipe, I'd say. Thanks, I do love the grain on iroko wood too and being into bow building I a...

Hello everyone, my name is Carl. I never crafted a pipe before and I decided to start work on one with the wood I have laying around, the only hardwood I have that is thick enough for a pipe is Iroko. Not sure how many people know about it, all I know is that its hard as rock a bit brittle but lasts...