Briar Sourcing

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 5:53 pm

Jack, where did you get that big back of trash - just so the rest of us know who to avoid....

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:34 pm

Kurt, I would rather not say, because the fact is that there was no misrepresentation on the seller's part, merely ignorance on mine. Not that someone is going to SAY, "look, a lot of these blocks will have cracks, and those that don't will either be bald, have flaws the size of lima beans, or a 1 percent chance of two sides of straight grain," but the fact is, that's what Todd is talking about, and that's what's for sale here. I don't know anywhere in the US to get anything better than what I got. My recommendation is the same as Todd's (I think) -- get involved in the trade, have a bit of cash set aside for briar purchase, and look to Europe for your connections.

Anthing more explicit will require the application of beer. : )

Jack

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:53 am

Beer is good. It's a nearly complete grouping of foods. Add some barbeque ribs, and you have a total nutrtional package.

I can understand where you're coming from. There's no need to slam someone excessively - however, if I'm ever in your neck of the woods, or you mine, we can discuss it over a liberal application of good beer.

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:48 pm

I just ordered a "package" of extra-extra plateaux from Jaume, and I guess we'll see how it is. The curing issue is the most critical to me, so the comments about his briar being too lightly cured concerns me, but I'll give it a shot. Most of the pipes I've made for sale aren't from the bag (and thanks for the compliment). Early in my relationship with that batch, I started with a batch of 40 blocks from the bag and wound up with 8 pipes, five of them blasted or rusticated. I've made lots of pipes from briar I got from Tom Eltang, before he stopped selling it. In contrast, I don't think I've discarded a single block from Tom. His briar tended to have lots of little pits, but nothing ruinous.

I've heard mention of a "group buy" here, which I think would work only if all parties could be present to divvy it up. There's just so much variation block to block. When I was in college, several fellow students and I would pool our resources to order reed cane from France. When it arrived, we'd pour it in a big pile, and take turns picking three tubes each. It would go pretty quickly at first, then slow down when all that was left was short, gnarly tubes. But, it was fair. I'm a little surprised that no one has managed to retail decent blocks in the US, but if it were that easy I'd do it myself. But you know, ten years ago it was just like this for bamboo for fly rods. There was one importer (the stuff comes from Guangdong, China) in NJ, and that was it -- you bought their stuff or no stuff. And when you got a bale of 25 poles, the first thing you did was throw away half of it. Now, there are several competing companies offering select cane from China. Representatives select the biggest, straightest, lightest poles from the growers and pay a premium for special processing. You pay more for it, but throw away less, and have less chance of putting in 10 hours before discovering a worm hole and having to scrap a blank. That's what would be great, somebody from the US with enough buying power and insistence on quality to compete with Stanwell and Cavicci for good briar, and the willingness to sell it to the rest of us.

Jack

Jack

Post by **Tyler** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 1:30 pm

I don't know about having the buying power of Cavicci or Stanwell, but Ido have the insistence on quality. The problem is not a lack of good wood available in the world. There is PLENTY. The problem is the expense of getting it here and still be able to sell at a reasonable price.

I'm working on it though.

Tyler

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:22 pm

I'm in the process of moving, but once I get settled again I'll be grabbing some briar from somewhere. I was going to order from Jaume, but I needed to delay that because of lack of funds.

However, I *will* be ordering mid-next-month from someplace. This will be the good briar though, probably from Yazid or Romeo, or even from somewhere else if I find another supplier of top-grade stuff.

Jack, please please please let us know your thoughts on Jaume's XX. I'm somewhat gun-shy on JH briar at the moment, and I would love to hear experiences with the XX.

When I do make my order next month, and I will be, anyone here is welcome to toss in at cost.

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 1:58 am

KurtHuhn wrote: Jack, please please please let us know your thoughts on Jaume's XX. I'm somewhat gun-shy on JH briar at the moment, and I would love to hear experiences with the XX.

Will do. I didn't think all of the blocks pictured in the package I bought looked like XX -- frankly, it looked like a one or two pretty nice blocks used as bait to sell a couple of real stinkers with a couple more sort of in between -- but I'm curious, and there's one way to find out.

Jack

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:40 am

Just got my box of JH briar today. My first impression is that the blocks were fairly accurately represented on the net. There are one or two really nice blocks, a couple of pretty junky ones, and a couple that are sort of okay, clearly destined for rustication, but not horribly flawed. They are, as reported elsewhere, sawn as square as square. My fears about curing are somewhat allayed; the blocks are reasonably light for their size. I trimmed one block a bit on the bandsaw, and thought it smelled pretty good during cutting.

My only complaint, not having made any pipes from this stuff yet, is that the cutting seems biased more toward size than grain. You can only get so many blocks out of a burl, and Romeo, for instance, seems in his cutting to be biased more toward grain than size. The blocks I have gotten from him have been smaller than those from other cutters, but better-grained. Stands to reason that the smaller your blocks, the more you can get with good grain out of a given burl. Anyway, with shipping it came to around 20 bucks per block. That seems a little high for what I got, but if the good-looking blocks turn out to be really good, I may feel differently.

briarworker · Post by **briarworker** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 11:22 pm

This is my first post. I thought I would let anyone interested to know that I have been working out of a bag of small briar from JH for over a year now. I'm very pleased with it. Theres not been a lot of bad block at all but it has been some. All in all it seems to be a great deal for the money for me anyway. Hope this is a little help, Jerry

JMB · Post by **JMB** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 1:08 am

Thanks Jerry and welcome.

RocheleauPipes · Post by **RocheleauPipes** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 11:56 am

Has anyone worked extensively--or at all--with briar from Calabria? I am needing to place another briar order real soon and was thinking of trying another suplier. I currently work with JH. Calabria's prices seem good. Anyone with comments on their quality and consistancy? I have also e-mailed Briar Grains but no reply yet. I emailed them a couple months ago, and also no reply. Oh well...

Thanks,
John

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 12:36 pm

John

I've had trouble with both companies with respect to timely replies. Yazid from briargrains takes some time. I found that telling him what you intended to order (especially if it is a good sized order) helps. I just placed an order last week. As far as Calabria goes, I didn't get a reply when I sent an email, so I contacted them via their italian language page with my letter in english and italian (use dictionary.com's translator page) and got a reply in about 10 days. I am getting a sample order from them as well as briargrains and hope to see it in about 4 weeks. I'll let you know what I think when I get the wood and have a chance to work with it.

Jeff

RocheleauPipes · Post by **RocheleauPipes** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:47 pm

Thanks Jeff,

I will likely place an order prior to getting your feedback, as I am almost out of briar. I am not certain how to read the codes on Calabria's price list, but assume that the R 2 1/2 is going to be a standard ebauchon, and not a plateaux. They list plateaux as a separate line item. I am not at all knowledgable on what the other prefixes other than "R" refer to. It is likely the shape of the cut. What I want from them is an ebauchon that is NOT preshaped in either a straight or bent rough form. For Plateaux, I may go to Briar Grains, and pay the extra, as I like the cutting they seem to do.

Two questions for you: Have you found out if Calabria cuts their EXTRA grade to enhance grain direction, or is it related more to minimize visible flaws in the blocks supplied? Also, any input on what the Calbria prefixes MO, MF, MFF, CMF, mean? I saw a picture on their site showing a bin of blocks labelled R 2 1/2 and that seems what I would want from them.

By the way, if anyone has any information on suppliers that they are reluctant to comment on publicly, just send me a private message. I will do the same for anyone wanting comments on JH.

Thanks Jeff,
John

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 4:20 pm

John,

I never saw a price list. I just sent an email requesting a sample order of their highest grade plateaux in medium sized blocks. My first email from them was a notice saying they had shipped out.

Jeff

RocheleauPipes · Post by **RocheleauPipes** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:59 pm

Hi Jeff,

Okay, I see. Nice that they sent samples. I hope they meet your expectations.

I'll keep tuned in here to see what you think of them.

John

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:46 pm

Believe me, John. I paid for them. I can't say that I'm too happy about it. All I did was ask if they could send out a 10 block sample set and the next email told me that they were in the mail and what I owed. I never even had the chance to say that I didn't want them--which I didn't because I had just placed an order with two other suppliers. Oh well.

Jeff

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Briar Sourcing

Experience with Calbria???