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Fresno wood sandblasted:


Wild cherry wood:


strawberry tree briar:



http://www.pipe-aqualong.com/

Neat grain on the strawberry tree. I thought strawberries came from bushes though?

Also known as the Irish Strawberry Tree. It's a relative of the White Heath (traditional briar) and is in the Ericaceae family. That probably explains the similar grain pattern.

Yeah, that's the first strawberry tree pipe that I have actually seen pictures of, and it's really nice stuff.

What's even wilder is the fact that, just this morning, I was reading about the Ericaceae plant family, which includes: the heath tree (Mediterranean briar); manzanita (domestic or "mission" briar); and the strawberry tree.

Drawing on my own experience with manzanita -- and looking at this pipe made from strawberry tree burl -- is really giving me food for thought.

Like, take this concept of "Grecian" briar, "Italian" briar, and "Algerian" briar. The more I'm thinking about this, the more I'm thinking that these various "heath" plants may not all be just one generic "heath" plant, but rather entirely different species of plants.

Like maybe "Grecian" briar might be Erica Arborea, while Algerian briar might in fact be Erica Ciliaris, or vice versa.

I don't know, I just think it's interesting that there are several hundred different species in the Ericaceae family, many of which seem well suited to pipes, and they are native to both Europe and North America, and ... well, like I say, I'm still thinking ... hmmm ...

Yeah, wouldn't it be wild to discover an untapped source of "North American Briar" in the Southwest or Southern US? If it was quality stuff, and had the same qualities of White Heath, it would be relatively local and nobody would have to deal with APHIS to get a supply of it.

All that would be left would be to get harvesters to process the root balls correctly.

KurtHuhn wrote:Yeah, wouldn't it be wild to discover an untapped source of "North American Briar" in the Southwest or Southern US? If it was quality stuff, and had the same qualities of White Heath, it would be relatively local and nobody would have to deal with APHIS to get a supply of it.

All that would be left would be to get harvesters to process the root balls correctly.

Well, manzanita is pretty doggone close. I actually started on another bulldog this morning out of manzanita, after one of my 2-3 more-promising blocks started beckoning me. If it turns out okay, I'll post some pictures.

Texture-wise, manzanita is closer to Mediterranean briar than anything else I have yet gotten my hands on. The grain is also very similar, with the medullary rays and whatnot.

I would venture to say that most pipemakers would have a hard time discerning between the two, were it not for the fact that most of the manzanita I have seen is this wonderful, rich, almost blood-red color.

I just wish I had a few more pieces so I could share. Unfortunately, my source works during the summer months bulldozing lots out west, and he hasn't offered up any manzanita on ebay since last winter.

But I got to researching that Ericaceae family, because I knew that there were like 60 different species of manzanita growing everywhere from British Columbia, Canada down to Oaxaca, Mexico.

And I was curious what variety grows down around Puerto Vallarta, where me, my Girlfriend and her Daughter are hoping to settle next winter, if everything goes as planned.

According to my soon-to-be brother-in-law, manzanita is one of the predominant wild shrubs down there. So if it's the kind that makes a good root-ball, you can bet I am going to be tapping into that when I get there.

But there are a lot of these manzanita-related plants scattered across the US. It's just a matter some of us pipemakers trying to figure out which ones will make a nice pipe and then figuring out how to tap into a source.

Another wood that's very closely related is madrone, which grows all along the Pacific and Southwestern United States. I haven't gotten my hands on any samples yet, but from what I have seen on Ebay, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if those madrone burls are real, real similar to Mediterranean briar in texture, grain, etc.

http://search.ebay.com/madrone
http://search.stores.ebay.com/madrone

pierredekat wrote:Yeah, that's the first strawberry tree pipe that I have actually seen pictures of, and it's really nice stuff.

I first heard of Strawberry wood when I got to talking to this guy http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Elie via email while I was compiling his Pipedia page. He uses Strawberry wood quite often.

Juniperus communis sandblasted.


olivo toscano sandblasted

http://www.pipe-aqualong.com/

Arbutus Unedo briar


http://www.pipe-aqualong.com/

This strawberry wood is very nice, as well as the olive. Still have some wild olive in the garage that's drying out and waiting for me when I return from the DRC (probably another 90 days or so )

It works pretty well, according to Mr. Perkins:

viewtopic.php?t=2415

Bodark is osage orange is bois d'arc is hedgeapple is Maclura pomifera. Lotsa names for it, only one kind of tree, though.