I cut some briar roots, i cut them in to blocks and now i must boile them for 12 hours as mimo romeo explains in his videos. My blocks are wet, what i must do ? waiting to dry a little or to boil them wet. Any tips available please?How i avoid cracks? Is there any tip?
Most briar is aged for quite a few years if I remember correctly, not sure on the whole process though. I don't think it's as quick as "cut, boil, bake, carve"
I'm not sure, but I think you boil them after cutting them into blocks without waiting for the blocks to dry first. The idea is to drive all of the saps out, and it seems that it would be more difficult if the blocks were allowed to dry before boiling. I know they keep the burls damp with a sprinkling system before they're cut to keep them from drying and cracking.
Yup. Cut 'em in blocks, boil them and change the water a few times. Then dry them real slow. No wind, no sun. Keep 'em in a plastic bag for awhile, then maybe a paper bag after that. This is a slow process or you can kiss your blocks goodbye.
I am in the middle of a similar experiment, but I am using Olive.
I took a piece of green Olive (2"x2"x3" or so) and drilled a tobacco chamber and a draft hole
Then I boiled it for 4 hours and listened to my wife complain that I was making the kitchen stink.
Then I let the whole pot, water and all, cool to room temperature over night.
The I dried the outside of the block and put masking tape over the end grain to slow drying.
I dried it in my basement for 4-5 weeks and then brought it upstairs to finish drying.
It looks good so far. I will keep you posted.
I don't know why you couldn't do the same thing with Briar.
An expert in olive wood and pipe maker said to me when i told him that i am interested in olive wood:
Do not "boil" or "heat" olive wood at any circumstance it would crack !
Well dried olive-wood is naturally ready,when shaped into a pipe,to be
smoked from.It does not contain any acid or tanin in noticeably
quantities that can disturb.
The natural rich olive oil content that is in the wood,gives a
wonderful sweetish taste to the Tobacco...a characteristic popular among
pipe smokesr.That is why the proper drying and curing of the wood is so
important,it gets in time of usage as a pipe,even harder and denser.
For me it will be good to experiment little with a boiled olive wood and an olive wood that you don not boile and compare the two blocks, and tell us what you can observe from this experiment.. I have olive wood too ready for drying and i did not boiled..
the boiling also does something to the wood to reduce checking or cracking while it dries
bowl turners boil the wood right after its turned green, then for air drying wrap in paper bags or sawdust to keep the moisture gradient slow but the boiling in their case is to reduce drying defects and let the wood warp when it dries instead of splitting
i tried this with applewood and got a good result 3x4" blocks boiled for an hour then seal with parafin wax let dry for six months in a box no surface checking or cracks. if you let the end grain dry out even overnight as soon as it drops below around 30% moisture content surface cracks will appear and spread. burl is all end grain, not sure what the authentic traditional method of drying a sack of green briar is but i would use something like anchor seal its popular for green wood its like a wax paint
fruit woods only impart a taste to the smoke for the first few bowls until it start to cake, maybe olive wood is different
