pipemakersforum.com

Comrades!

No joke!

m.c. (miserable competitor) Paolo Becker from Rome/Italy has been using the wood of strawberry trees for pipe-making for a while. When I saw his pipes made out of this paticular material for the first time (at the Rheinbach show in summer that was) I was absulutely fascinated. The wood is lighter than briar, and the grain is wilder/more "natural" if you know what I mean. I was lucky to get this one (in exchange for a "bone-fish"):













Paolo gives a closer look at this material on his web-site. I understand that those trees are growing - like briar - around the mediterranian but also in the southwest of Ireland and parts of North America! So check wiki, lads, get out your axes and go out chopping down the stuff! It´s gonna be worth while. I´ve been smoking my "strawberry" for a while now, and I can tell you: Magnificant stuff! I havn´t seen a smooth one yet, though. Maybe it´s only for sandblasting - I wouldn´t care much.

Cheerio!
Walle

Arbutus unedo is the scientific name, if any of you are wondering its facinating stuff. all over the western coast of the usa (where i live).

There are two tipes of Strawberry Tree only one of which is suitable for pipes and it's not found outside europe. I've read several reports on Paolo's experiments and they all seem very positive. From what I understand it is the wood of the tree which is used rather than the root, although that may be back to front.

http://www.beckerpipes.com/pubblico/not ... _azione=OK

David

That is fantastic stuff!! Definitely a unique blast. Thanks for sharing!

Along the same lines, I have seen pipe work listed on ebay made of Rhamnus (Buckthorn). At first I didn't realize it was and actual wood, thought someone had come up with some resin ore something. I investigated it on wiki and found many types. Has anyone used this particular wood? Wha are the characteristics? What genus of the rhamnus would be used?

Nate wrote:That is fantastic stuff!! Definitely a unique blast. Thanks for sharing!

Along the same lines, I have seen pipe work listed on ebay made of Rhamnus (Buckthorn). At first I didn't realize it was and actual wood, thought someone had come up with some resin ore something. I investigated it on wiki and found many types. Has anyone used this particular wood? Wha are the characteristics? What genus of the rhamnus would be used?

N8,

I've seen those too! I wonder if that stuff is actually toxic and might just be some kind of Chinese fraud. I would be interested in getting a piece of the stuff anyway.

--a

flix wrote:

Nate wrote:That is fantastic stuff!! Definitely a unique blast. Thanks for sharing!

Along the same lines, I have seen pipe work listed on ebay made of Rhamnus (Buckthorn). At first I didn't realize it was and actual wood, thought someone had come up with some resin ore something. I investigated it on wiki and found many types. Has anyone used this particular wood? Wha are the characteristics? What genus of the rhamnus would be used?

N8,

I've seen those too! I wonder if that stuff is actually toxic and might just be some kind of Chinese fraud. I would be interested in getting a piece of the stuff anyway.

--a

I agree! It actually looks like decent material.

That is a marvelous looking pipe,indeed!
The background on this rather rarely used wood is really very interesting and obviously worth every effort to work on.I will have to take a close look in this part of the Mediterranean coast ,maybe I'll get lucky finding it.

Best,
Abi

there is a bush in California that has the same properties of this wood, its called manzanita ive made quite a few pipes from it and i like the taste of the wood

Walle

now that's a good trade...

james

What a cool looking pipe! It would be nice to have a great briar alternative to use that one could actually get locally. Plus, "strawberry wood" just sounds like something pleasant to smoke out of.

Growley wrote:What a cool looking pipe! It would be nice to have a great briar alternative to use that one could actually get locally. Plus, "strawberry wood" just sounds like something pleasant to smoke out of.

The Pacific Madrone that I'm using for my practice pipes is basically "American Strawberry Tree." The place i got mine from pressure cooks the wood to stabilize it and get all the nasty stuff out like briar farmers do. http://www.woodheadz.com/store/pc/home.asp The grain isn't as tight as briar of course but it does make a great smoker.

Manzanita is the other American Heather. The grain of Manzanita looks much more like briar from what i can tell, but I cant seem to find a supplier that prepares it properly for pipe making. I've considered asking the folks a Wood Headz if i could ship them some Manzanita burls to pressure cook for me.

Damn that's a sweet pipe! I keep watching Paolo's work and hoping something will pop up that: 1) Is small and light enough for me and B) I can afford.

The first requirement wasn't rare a few years ago, but lately he's been selling a lot of ginormous pipes to the US.

AaronC wrote:

Growley wrote:What a cool looking pipe! It would be nice to have a great briar alternative to use that one could actually get locally. Plus, "strawberry wood" just sounds like something pleasant to smoke out of.

The Pacific Madrone that I'm using for my practice pipes is basically "American Strawberry Tree." The place i got mine from pressure cooks the wood to stabilize it and get all the nasty stuff out like briar farmers do. http://www.woodheadz.com/store/pc/home.asp The grain isn't as tight as briar of course but it does make a great smoker.

Manzanita is the other American Heather. The grain of Manzanita looks much more like briar from what i can tell, but I cant seem to find a supplier that prepares it properly for pipe making. I've considered asking the folks a Wood Headz if i could ship them some Manzanita burls to pressure cook for me.

All the manzanita I've seen was beautiful but full of flaws that would render it unuseable except for beater pipes. But if you could get it cut and cured intentionally for pipes, that might be something worthwhile.

Sasquatch wrote:
All the manzanita I've seen was beautiful but full of flaws that would render it unuseable except for beater pipes.

I thought all your pipes were made from manzanita? I'm just sayin'...

Well yeah.

Geez Ernie, what are you trying to say?

Is it sad that I looked in this thread just to see if Sas was making yet another abrasive comment? (This is me being sadly disappointed)

Becker does great work with strawberry wood. I have an Arbutus Rhodesian by Enrico Marola and love smoking Va in it. Very light pipe.

Arbutus is available from Mimmo.

The Smoking Yeti wrote:Is it sad that I looked in this thread just to see if Sas was making yet another abrasive comment? (This is me being sadly disappointed)

Abrasive? Moi?

I see it more as sort of ... a polishing compound, than an abrasive outright.

Comrades!

I finally got me a decent plateau of this wood - Paolo gave it to me when I was in Rome 10 days ago.
The material gets cut the same way as briar; from a look at the block you couldn't tell if it's briar or not. Same colour - same grain. But the weight difference is really significant. To me it seemed also a little bit softer than briar and easyer to work on. The reason for this impression might be also the fact, though, that I've been working with stone hard, very old briar from Corsica recently.















Grainwise I happened to be really lucky. Plus: no flaws at all! I have no idea if this is normal with this wood.
But I sure will return to Italy in order to get more of it.

Cheerio!
Walle

That is cool. What does it weigh?