Mesquite Revisited!
Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:00 pm
The wood I really like to use is mesquite. It is a self replenishing, invasive, native to my area. It would also be quite a task to endanger the stuff.
Most properties in my area would be improved by it's removal. It is also the most stable wood in the world. Harder than oak, and very wear resistant.
I have used the rustic poker in the pic over a hundred times, and if I bother to clean it out, you would be hard put to tell if it has ever been near heat.
A thinner walled pipe will show some heat effects. Mesquite conducts heat well, so with a nice thick wall the heat will spread an it will tend to resist charring.
I read somewhere a few years back that in the early days, Texas exported quite a bit of mesquite root to China and at the time the Chinese considered it the best wood for making smoking pipes out of. I have been trying to find that reference again, but I have quite a collection of books, papers, and article on the properties of wood, so It may take me a while to find it again.
To stave off the inevitable BBQ references, I will admit to using my scraps of wood for just such a purpose. But only when I am out of old rotted willow root. Seriously, after you have tasted meat grilled with old willow root, you won't consider any other wood to be in the running. Not even mesquite.
Bob
Most properties in my area would be improved by it's removal. It is also the most stable wood in the world. Harder than oak, and very wear resistant.
I have used the rustic poker in the pic over a hundred times, and if I bother to clean it out, you would be hard put to tell if it has ever been near heat.
A thinner walled pipe will show some heat effects. Mesquite conducts heat well, so with a nice thick wall the heat will spread an it will tend to resist charring.
I read somewhere a few years back that in the early days, Texas exported quite a bit of mesquite root to China and at the time the Chinese considered it the best wood for making smoking pipes out of. I have been trying to find that reference again, but I have quite a collection of books, papers, and article on the properties of wood, so It may take me a while to find it again.
To stave off the inevitable BBQ references, I will admit to using my scraps of wood for just such a purpose. But only when I am out of old rotted willow root. Seriously, after you have tasted meat grilled with old willow root, you won't consider any other wood to be in the running. Not even mesquite.
Bob