I have a pipe that I carved from a kit and am getting a wiered taste. Nothing that I have ever tasted in the tobaccos I normally smoke. I'm thinking the briar has not completely dried.
I found some wood turners who use alcohol baths and clear dish soap baths (1to6 ratio) to soak the wood in proir to drying.
I would hate to damage my latest monstrosity but I was wondering what you guys use to "milk" the last amount of sap from briar. No Sasquatch. The 30 year burlap sack is not an option.
I've had that happen before, and it can be very nasty. IMO it's typically indicative of poorly processed briar, but I'm sure there are other reasons. Maybe try boiling in plain tap water with a couple water changes? The drying part will be the most tough. You want to be sure it dries slowly to avoid cracks and checks.
What I know about microwave drying - which isn't much - is that it heats the lignins in the wood so that they become elastic and pliable. That way the wood can shrink and expand without pulling itself apart. I've done this with some success with an osage orange candy dish I made, as well as a rock maple bowl. I kept the power setting on the microwave below 30, and only did it in increments of 2 minutes or so. I tried not to let the bowl get too hot - but I didn't take temperature measurements or anything. IT was entirely a seat of the pants affair.
Unfortunately now that it's already finished, it's much more difficult to boil it. You can get good results from boiling in distilled water, but if you've already got a mortise drilled, it's very likely to warp in the process and no longer seat the tenon properly - You'll get an oval hole. If you're going to boil briar, I get the best results from pre-drilling the bowls and pre-shaping the stummels rough, but leaving the airhole and mortise undrilled. Checking has honestly never been a big problem, as long as the stummels are kept in a somewhat humid location afterward and you don't attempt to accelerate their drying via heat or anything.
I tried it on a bad-tasting pipe. Since it was bad to start with, I didn't mind all the warping and cracking, and boiled it for 15 hours with more than 10 changes of water. Not a further bit of pink tint could be extracted during the last severl hours of boiling. Then it was microwave dried, after which the stummel was super light and seemed quite promising. The first smoke after the process was very good, dry and sweet. However, it degenerated to the old state from the second bowl on. Now, this pipe can offer a reasonably good smoke during the first half-bowl, but only if it rests for a long time (at least a dozen days or so). In contrast, a good piece of briar to begin with can smoke well from top to bottom, with only three four days of rest in between. So I agree with Kurt that there are other reasons we don't know. Somehow I feel the top secret of pipe making is only in the hands of the very few best briar cutters in the world.
