The Characteristics of Briarwood - Article
The Characteristics of Briarwood - Article
Yay!! I finally got the article. Haven't read it yet, but it looks awesome. if anyone has a place to post it where it can be downloaded, let me know. Otherwise i can email it if you all like.
-
pierredekat
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do to stay awake at work, right?
Here's the link fellas:
http://www.scofieldpipes.com/briar_prop.pdf
Most should be able to open the PDF in their browser, but if not you should be able to right click the link above and select the save option.
Here's the link fellas:
http://www.scofieldpipes.com/briar_prop.pdf
Most should be able to open the PDF in their browser, but if not you should be able to right click the link above and select the save option.
Wow, that's great, Nick, thanks! Just printed it off after downloading from Ben's site. I really appreciate it gents!
Scott E. Thile
Collector, smoker, and aspiring pipemaker.
http://sethilepipes.com
Sysop: http://pipedia.org
---------------------
Collector, smoker, and aspiring pipemaker.
http://sethilepipes.com
Sysop: http://pipedia.org
---------------------
-
LexKY_Pipe
- Posts: 875
- Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:00 pm
- Location: Lexington, Kentucky USA
LOL! Glad it finally worked for you bud.
I'm interested in what you all think of the article. It wasn't terribly enlightening to me. Most of it seemed pretty common sense. But I still enjoyed the read, and i am sure I'll refer back to it. The microscopic pictures were fascinating, and man, those warped blocks were scary!!
What I really found interesting was how the postulated that some of the goop in the wood was actually what made the briar so resistant to heat. Maybe it is necessary for some of the sap to stay in the wood to have a good pipe?
I'm interested in what you all think of the article. It wasn't terribly enlightening to me. Most of it seemed pretty common sense. But I still enjoyed the read, and i am sure I'll refer back to it. The microscopic pictures were fascinating, and man, those warped blocks were scary!!
What I really found interesting was how the postulated that some of the goop in the wood was actually what made the briar so resistant to heat. Maybe it is necessary for some of the sap to stay in the wood to have a good pipe?
-
pierredekat
Some of my own observations:
* I wasn't sure what to make of the data for the density of briar sprinkled throughout the article. Earlier on, they showed a table with 0.97 grams/cm3 for briar root. But later in the article they say "General information about briarwood is presented in a brief monograph by Schmidt (1951) contained in a descriptive treatment of several other woods. This work includes macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, air-dry density values (mean 0.78, range 0.63-0.94), and referenced to preparatory boiling (to release stresses and obtain uniformity of color between sapwood and heartwood) and to high temperature resistance that makes briarwood suitable for pipes. The author rejects the opinion that the latter resistance is due to silica (Hegi 1935), because the silica content of briarwood is not 'unusually high'. Density values of .80-.90 (without reference to base) were also supplied by another source (Instituto Legno 1976)." The author says that his "0.97 g/cm3" value was for "dry" briar root, and I'm wondering if his reading was based on wood dried down to near 0 percent moisture content, rather than an equilibrium moisture content somewhere in the 10 percent range. That might account for why his readings were higher than the readings of both Schmidt and Instituto Legno. I guess I'm still just trying to parse the article a little further to see how it jives with my own calculations for the density of briar.
* There's a good chance that the information I gleaned about the drying process for briar will someday prove helpful. Apparently the boiling process goes a long way toward keeping drying checks and warping to a minimum. I'm hoping to eventually settle down along Mexico's Pacific Coast, where Manzanita ("Mission Briar") grows pretty much everywhere. And I'm thinking I can harvest and process that Manzanita -- boiling it in a big ol' tamale pot to keep drying checks and warping to a minimum -- just like the folks along the Mediterranean do with their briar.
* They kept using the word "tumor" when referring to typical briar root. I understand the concept behind this, and I have seen the word used quite a bit in relation to many kinds of "burl" type woods. I guess, depending on our own personal affinity for briar, we may or may not want to adopt that same terminology.
* I wasn't sure what to make of the data for the density of briar sprinkled throughout the article. Earlier on, they showed a table with 0.97 grams/cm3 for briar root. But later in the article they say "General information about briarwood is presented in a brief monograph by Schmidt (1951) contained in a descriptive treatment of several other woods. This work includes macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, air-dry density values (mean 0.78, range 0.63-0.94), and referenced to preparatory boiling (to release stresses and obtain uniformity of color between sapwood and heartwood) and to high temperature resistance that makes briarwood suitable for pipes. The author rejects the opinion that the latter resistance is due to silica (Hegi 1935), because the silica content of briarwood is not 'unusually high'. Density values of .80-.90 (without reference to base) were also supplied by another source (Instituto Legno 1976)." The author says that his "0.97 g/cm3" value was for "dry" briar root, and I'm wondering if his reading was based on wood dried down to near 0 percent moisture content, rather than an equilibrium moisture content somewhere in the 10 percent range. That might account for why his readings were higher than the readings of both Schmidt and Instituto Legno. I guess I'm still just trying to parse the article a little further to see how it jives with my own calculations for the density of briar.
* There's a good chance that the information I gleaned about the drying process for briar will someday prove helpful. Apparently the boiling process goes a long way toward keeping drying checks and warping to a minimum. I'm hoping to eventually settle down along Mexico's Pacific Coast, where Manzanita ("Mission Briar") grows pretty much everywhere. And I'm thinking I can harvest and process that Manzanita -- boiling it in a big ol' tamale pot to keep drying checks and warping to a minimum -- just like the folks along the Mediterranean do with their briar.
* They kept using the word "tumor" when referring to typical briar root. I understand the concept behind this, and I have seen the word used quite a bit in relation to many kinds of "burl" type woods. I guess, depending on our own personal affinity for briar, we may or may not want to adopt that same terminology.