Briar Round Up

[Sasquatch]

I suspect a whole bunch of us are in a similar position, where we are looking to buy 5 blocks, or 10 or 20, rather than bringing in a pallet full of briar. Many of us don't have a dedicated direct supply chain - we buy what we can where we can, when we need it (or in my case, just after I need it, but I'm not too bright that way).

What I'm gonna write here is my own experience, I don't mean it to be an exhaustive briar reference and I am absolutely open to other experiences and opinions - in fact it would be good to hear from some of the rest of you on this as time goes by.

Algerian: (Yazidbriar.com) - when PME had this stuff, I thought most of it was great right up until the end when it seemed to get not so great. But for good even graining and relatively few flaws, the algerian I've handled was wonderful. I haven't bought any for a while, and I've never bought directly from Yazid because there were some "I waited 6 months for briar" sort of stories floating around. I would be very curious to hear from anyone who has successfully ordered quanities large or small in the recent past - how was the transaction, how was the product?

I would call Algerian "medium" for hardness and density. It works fairly easily but is also a little more resilient to tools/scratching/cracking than some other briar.

Spanish: (Briarblocks.com) - I use a lot of Jaume's briar. And when I'm not tremendously pissed off at it, I'm totally thrilled with it. I've had almost all the grades they sell, and various sizes. For some reason, the ebauchon products haven't worked well for me. I've bought regular and birdeye ebauchons, and out of a dozen or so blocks, only produced a couple or smooth-grade pipes. The "extra" plateaux is briar - grain ranges from pretty good to completely wacky, but most of the blocks are sound. The XX is good stuff - I've had relatively few outright bin-able failures. And the best ones are super, the grain is awesome and the blocks are pure.

There tend to be more issues near the bark with some of these blocks than I've seen on other plateaux - you have to choose wisely and sometimes do a little exploratory cutting. Most of the blocks are big enough to allow this, and to allow re-cutting to maximize grain orientation.

The "very tight" blocks are just that - very tightly grained. They are hard and dense for the most part, with high ring count. They are silly for price, but really interesting to work on.

This stuff is fairly hard, it sandblasts like concrete, but finishes smooth with no effort.

Italian - (Romeobriar.com) Mimmo sells 10, 20 and 30 packs of "extra" grade, at the punch of a button, or you can special order. My 10 included a good assortment of blocks, some nice R-type crosscut ebauchons, a couple large plateaux pieces and a couple of half-moon type plateaux, a really long ebauchon and I think one m-type (straight pipe). They come clean as a whistle - bark is scrubbed off which is nice. There's hardly any flaws in the wood - in the 8 I've cut I only had one pipe that I had to either rusticate or change the shape of due to an internal briar flaw. I am actually reminded of cheese - just big blocks that you can carve into with hardly any risk. The grain is .... good. Just regular and even. There was nothing in my box that was heart-stopping, but I didn't pay for heart-stopping, I just paid for briar. The ebauchons were really good.

This stuff surprised me at just how soft it is. The first ones I cut I beat the hell out of because I'm used to harder wood. It finishes fine, you just have to treat it a little nicely. Sandblasts really easily. The wood will arrive less than totally dry. I don't know how long it needs, but it needs some drying time - shanks were noticeably shrinking after two weeks here.

Mystery Briar - (JHLowe.com) I don't know where Tim got the briar he has, but it sounds like he has a mountain of it. I got an assortment of cuts and sizes last year, and was certainly reminded of the algerian I'd handled in terms of how the briar felt, smelt, and cut. Tim's got some monstous blocks, the biggest pieces I've ever seen, I think, and I didn't buy the biggest he offers. None of the big ones were problem free though - checking and fissuring seemed to be an issue on the biggest blocks, and I don't know if that's common or just luck of the draw.

The ebauchons were as good as anything I've used. I got some real nice pipes out of the ebauchons and the smaller plateaux pieces.

This is good all-around briar - softer than some, harder than some, smokes really good, and it seems to have been sitting awhile - no moisture issues.


Pipemaker's Emporium (pipemaker's.org) - the Tuscan they have currently is good all-around briar. I've had very few failures out of probably 10 or 20 blocks of their current stock. The blocks are a good size - Medium is big enough for fairly large pipes, large is really big and the XL blocks yield up magnums.

The grain is regular and predictable, very easy to read and use to good advantage. Easy briar to work with. I've had really good luck with it, but I know some other people who are less enamored, so it may just be that - luck.


At any rate, y'all can price things out for yourselves and do what you think suits your purposes. I would buy briar from all of these sources again, but I wouldn't buy the same blocks or hope to use it for the same purpose, necessarily. A guy making collector-grade volcanoes has a different need than a guy who is merely trying to get a pipe-shaped object ground into submission.

I certainly want to hear other people's experiences with any other vendors (or these as well).

[baweaverpipes]

I consider Mimmo a true artist and would buy from nowhere else. He knows his pipe makers and I have never had a problem with his briar.
Just to watch this artist cut is nothing short of amazing.
One day Thad Johnston and I were shaping, Thad a zillion $ plateau and me a sandblast quality, and in unison commented "How the hell does he do it?". It's as if he can see into the briar.
This report is full of bias since Mimmo is a friend, but I have not received any remuneration.

[caskwith]

I consider Mimmo a true artist and would buy from nowhere else. He knows his pipe makers and I have never had a problem with his briar.
Just to watch this artist cut is nothing short of amazing.
One day Thad Johnston and I were shaping, Thad a zillion $ plateau and me a sandblast quality, and in unison commented "How the hell does he do it?". It's as if he can see into the briar.
This report is full of bias since Mimmo is a friend, but I have not received any remuneration.

I have to agree, Mimmo's briar is fantastic. Sure I get flaws, sometimes I scrap a block entriely and certainly i end up with plenty of sandblasts that i would have liked to be smooths. But thats briar. In the hundreds of blocks I have had from mimmo, i can count the scrapped blocks on one hand and the shop pipes on the other, not bad in my opinion.

Oh and to clarify I am also biased, but not quite as much as Brute Weaver or Thad Johnson.

[staffwalker]

I have used lots of the PME Algerian briar, it's good stuff, have never had to discard a block. A couple of years back I got 70 blocks directly from Yazid, had no trouble with the order, other than having to pay Algerian Customs two bucks per kilo kickback and fifty bucks to my bank to transfer the money to him. He mailed the briar without payment, when I received it, only took about ten days, I went to my bank and had his money sent. Since then he has contacted me several times to sell me more but always saying he needs to be paid first. I won't do this, there are too many horror stories floating around to take the chance. It's not the same as the old PME stuff, its much heavier so I presume it is much wetter. After cutting some ten odd blocks, I put it back to dry further. Non of the blocks I cut was as free of cracks and pits as the old PME stuff. The remaining blocks have been drying for about two years now, they are still much heavier that the old PME stuff. bob gilbert

[smokindawg]

I purchased directly from Yazid and have to say, the horror stories, are true. I actually bought and paid for pen making supplies for him in exchange for the blocks. I then made my order from him for the same amount. I ordered a combination of ebauchons and plateaux totalling $300. I ordered a lot more ebauchons, as I needed the blocks to practice and they were cheaper.

He said about 20 days for delivery. After the first month, I started asking. He was full of excuses each time that he did actually answer. After the second month, he just quit answering my email. So, having two email addresses for him, I started emailing him at both addresses every day. He still didn't answer, but I kept on sending them. He did eventually answer and informed me that he had to slightly change my order. Finally just after 3 months, I finally got my box. When I opened it, there were 28 blocks. All were graded the tasalli (Highest grade he sells) and were mini's, although many are much bigger than others. So I still feel I got a good deal for $10 a block shipped. The blocks are all good looking blocks and I haven't done anything to any of them, so they have been drying about 1 1/2 years or so now.

Would I order from him again? Not if I was in a hurry. But even with the horror stories, I don't think I know of anyone that didn't get their blocks. Eventually. So I'd probably order again, if the price were right..... But he has even gone up on that.

Luckily, I have about 35 plateaux and over 100 ebauchons (from a different source) now, so I have plenty to practice on, once I get the shop finished.

[Sasquatch]

I cut a tassilli-grade mini not too long ago for a mini-dublin, and it was beautiful - and I thought "Oh yeah, I remember this stuff now".

But I'd be outrageously pissed if I ordered one thing and got another from a vendor with no warning.

Generally, and this I apply to my "real business" of carpentry, I don't deal with vendors who don't phone me back, don't communicate problems, etc. The one and only rule of construction is "Do what you say you are going to do." And this applies to all business more or less.

[TimGeorge]

Great post, and thank you. Your experience is similiar to my own. I was a big fan of the PME algerian, and now have been branching out to ordering from Jaume and Mimmo since the PME tuscan just seems too expensive to me, and a little on the small side. Transactions with both have been easy and the briar of good quality. I have to say, though, that I am falling in love with the "softer" feel of the Mimmo briar, and I recently got a 20 block package from Mimmo that came to about 23.50 a block including shipping. Hard to beat that combination of quality and pricing. On the other hand, I have gotten several spanish briar blocks with outstanding grain, and I appreciate the fact that he will sell you a block cut for canadians when the need arises. Glad they are both out there. Yazid I have not tried, because of the same stories repeated here.

[Sasquatch]

I think for most of us the "to my door" price per block breakdown is pretty important, and Mimmo's prices are certainly fair. Even the 10 pack works out to roughly $40.00 for the plateux and 20 for the ebauchons or something like that, and that's including the shipping.

Jaume's xx hits my house at about $30.00 a medium block. I have only chucked out a few with interior flaws that couldn't be worked with, and the really good ones are stupendous, so for me, it's a reasonable deal, especially given the type and size of pipes I generally make.

I had a run of just terrible luck trying to hammer out a little "bing's favorite" type the other day. I wanted a perfect smooth, and the first block (ebauchon) was garbage, second blastable, and the third had only one little fault - right through the bowl wall! So in this case, if this was my first experience with Jaume, I'd be choked, but that was the first failed xx plateaux in a long time (the ebauchons I'm not thrilled with - 2/4 were outright shitty). But the nice one is great. Not worth the 85 bucks in briar that I had to cut to get there though!

[FredS]

Is a permit of any sort required to receive shipments from Mimmo (Italy)? I suppose he includes all the correct documents to clear US Customs with relative ease?

[KurtHuhn]

It is not strictly required, and papers for Customs are usually suggested, but as of right now briar is not restricted in any way for import.

HOWEVER!!!!

I once had a shipment from Algeria stopped at US Customs in St Luis (IIRC) because they opened the package to inspect it and the blocks were covered in bark. To them that raised a red flag about possible infection with extra-continental bugs and my multi-thousand dollar shipment was scheduled to be incinerated with no remuneration whatsoever. I immediately got an import license, sent it to Customs along with a description of the processing that briar undergoes (which has a side effect of killing buggies), and got my briar pardoned at the last minute.

To this day I take no chances and my cutter has a copy of my import permit which is included with all other paperwork when they ship to me.

Keep in mind: It is legal to import briar without a permit. But most Customs agents couldn't tell briar from a piece of cocobolo or a square hole in the ground if you held a gun to their head. For that reason, I always cover my bases.

[Sasquatch]

Mimmo includes a little piece of paper declaring that the blocks are inert, contain no seeds and have been heat treated. My package came with the bark already brushed off too, which I thought was slick.

Speaking as a Canadian, my pack from Mimmo went through all the convolutions it could - got hit for GST etc, and was opened by customs, so for Canadians, bringing 10 pieces of Mimmo's wood in is no trouble. If I was bringing in a pallet full, I would get a hardwood importing permit for the reasons Kurt mentioned.