found briar~
Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 9:40 am
Bonanza! (This will make your mouth water . . .)
In the early 1970s, I found a seller at a Tucson swap meet selling plateaux briar blocks out of a five-gallon bucket. Knowing nothing about briar, I purchased one(!) block (50 cents), took it home, marveled at the beautiful "figure" in the wood, and made a pipe.
It turned out nicely, so next time at the swap meet (same gent was there) I noted that he appeared not to have sold any more briar (pipemakers not plentiful, apparently), and asked what he wanted for the entire bucketful. We negotiated the price down to $7.50, and I went home with about five dozen well-aged briar blocks.
I made a handful of pipes and sold them to fellow newspaper reporters. Lost interest after a while, and ignored the rest of the briar.
Reawakened pipemaking interest a half-century later (I'm now retired), and -- to my utter amazement -- realized I still had the "original" bucket in storage -- still nearly full of briar!
Noting that today's plateaux blocks seem to sell for about $30-$35 each, I was doubly thrilled! (Not quite the same as a metal detector stumbling onto a trove of Roman coins . . . but almost . . .)
(Sorry, but, nope, they're not for sale . . .)
p.s. Atop the briar was a plastic bag with about two dozen black stems I'd purchased. "Frosting on the cake."
Just a small story to point out that "the world's still OK . . .
In the early 1970s, I found a seller at a Tucson swap meet selling plateaux briar blocks out of a five-gallon bucket. Knowing nothing about briar, I purchased one(!) block (50 cents), took it home, marveled at the beautiful "figure" in the wood, and made a pipe.
It turned out nicely, so next time at the swap meet (same gent was there) I noted that he appeared not to have sold any more briar (pipemakers not plentiful, apparently), and asked what he wanted for the entire bucketful. We negotiated the price down to $7.50, and I went home with about five dozen well-aged briar blocks.
I made a handful of pipes and sold them to fellow newspaper reporters. Lost interest after a while, and ignored the rest of the briar.
Reawakened pipemaking interest a half-century later (I'm now retired), and -- to my utter amazement -- realized I still had the "original" bucket in storage -- still nearly full of briar!
Noting that today's plateaux blocks seem to sell for about $30-$35 each, I was doubly thrilled! (Not quite the same as a metal detector stumbling onto a trove of Roman coins . . . but almost . . .)
(Sorry, but, nope, they're not for sale . . .)
p.s. Atop the briar was a plastic bag with about two dozen black stems I'd purchased. "Frosting on the cake."
Just a small story to point out that "the world's still OK . . .