Briar wood suppliers and cuts

[Rbraniganpipes]

Hey guys,

I have been working for a while with some Algerian Plateaux that I bought a while back, and have had pretty good luck so far. I am getting ready to purchase some more wood, and wanted to seek some suggestions on what to purchase (Algerian/Italian) different grades, and where to get a good supply for a reasonable price (20-30 blocks). I have yet to work with Ebauchon blocks, as all of my pipes have been made from Plateaux blocks, but would like to start. Do you guys have any suggestions of what cut of wood would be best, along with what size pieces I should start with? I would love to be able to create some pipes with beautiful Birdseye. I am assuming my best chance at that would be with some Ebauchon blocks.

Cheers

[sandahlpipe]

Steve Norse is your guy for all kinds of pipe supplies, but he's also just about the only guy who consistently stocks briar from all major briar cutters. His website is http://vermontfreehand.com

[Rbraniganpipes]

Jeremiah, Steve is who I have used so far. Any suggestions on cuts and sizes for someone who doesn't have a sand blast cabinet. Obviously grade 3 isn't on my radar.

[sandahlpipe]

I've gotten decent smooth pipes with good grain from a grade 3 block, and I've had worthless grade 1's. There are no guarantees, but generally speaking, you'll have better luck getting smooth pipes from the higher quality wood.

My advice is to hold off on buying high quality wood until you're very confident in your drilling and shaping skills. There's no sense spending the extra money while you're learning the basics. If you end up with flaws in the block and you don't have a blast cabinet, rusticate the outside or, depending on the size of the flaw, leave the imperfection visible. One way or another, you're going to have to address the issue of flaws in briar because it happens to everybody who sticks with it long enough.

I'd recommend working with ebauchons from Steve in the cheapest variety. He often has blocks that are specifically for practice drilling that I'd strongly consider while you're learning the basics. If you have lots of extra money at your disposal and it's burning a hole in your pockets, I'd recommend buying quality tools instead of quality briar at the beginning. After you've had a year or two learning the basics, go for the better briar. Starting pipe making with high grade briar is like learning to drive with a ferrari.

[Rbraniganpipes]

Starting pipe making with high grade briar is like learning to drive with a ferrari.

Wouldn't that be nice.... Thanks for the advice Jeremiah. it is much appreciated. Sometimes my ideas get a little far ahead of my talent and my wallet. I guess that could be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.

[e Markle]

My advice is to hold off on buying high quality wood until you're very confident in your drilling and shaping skills. There's no sense spending the extra money while you're learning the basics.

This. There's just no point in spending good money when you're learning. Frankly, all of our first pipes look like crap (exception Maigurs), and it's simply not the case that collectors are going to pick them up and say, "wow, I love the ungainly look of his shank, the clumsy, uncomfortable button, and oooohhh, how I love the ill-defined Billiard/rhodesian/fugu mix, BUT there's a flaw on the shank so I can't buy this!!!" You can learn absolutely everything you need to on really low quality blocks - just finish what you can around the flaws.

I have no idea where you are in the process so this may not pertain to you, but when I began learning the basics, I drilled 2x4's until I could make the holes line up exactly where I wanted them to. Then I practiced shaping them out, and I eventually drilled mortises and put stems on them. Why waste briar when you can learn the basics on a more abundant resource?

[caskwith]

Ernie has good advice there. Practice drilling on scraps of construction lumber if you are having trouble lining things up. When you are confident in your ability to drill the holes properly then move onto the cheapest briar you can get hold of, it will be perfect for practising on, if you screw up it then it doesn't cost much and when you get it right you will have a fairly nice pipe usually, even the cheapest blocks are still ok wood in my experience.

[Sasquatch]

I disagree... get some nice blocks, slow down, take your time, make something nice. No point working with garbage at all.

Steve's great, ask him for what you need, he'll ship you useful stuff.