Briar

Briar (English briar, French bruyère) is the undisputed king of woods used in pipe making. It is obtained from the underground root burl of the tree heath (Erica arborea), which grows across the Mediterranean basin. Tree heath is a shrub that can reach 6-7 meters; but the part that becomes a pipe isn't the trunk, it's this burl that grows between the root and the trunk. Nearly every classic wooden pipe that comes to mind today when someone says "pipe" is made of briar.

Why Briar?

The root burl is a water and nutrient reservoir that lets the plant survive in its arid, fire-prone terrain. This function gives it three properties ideal for a pipe:

• Heat resistance: Its dense, mineral-rich structure withstands the heat of the ember for years.

• A balance of lightness and strength: Despite being hard, it's light enough to be carried in the mouth.

• Grain pattern: The burl's fiber structure forms aesthetic patterns that makers classify under names like "straight grain" and "birdseye."

The hardest and most fire-resistant briar is understood to come from old roots growing slowly on barren, agriculturally unsuitable Mediterranean slopes. Not every burl is usable either: only those that are round and regular in shape are suitable for a pipe, and misshapen ones are already eliminated at harvest.

History

The use of briar in pipe making spread in the mid-19th century, around the French town of Saint-Claude. According to the best-known legend, a Frenchman making a pilgrimage to Corsica after Napoleon's death in 1821 had his pipe break along the way, and a local shepherd made him a replacement from briar. It's accepted, however, that the event's actual date falls much later, around the middle of the century; sources do not agree on an exact year.

The claim to origin doesn't belong to Saint-Claude alone: the town of Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet in the Eastern Pyrenees also argues that the first briar pipe was carved on its own soil. What is documented is this: in October 1858, a shipment of 1,440 rough pipe-blank blocks was delivered from the south to Saint-Claude in a single month — meaning the industry was already established by that date. How the pipe world switched to briar and how Saint-Claude became "the cradle of the pipe" is told in the article on the briar revolution.

From Harvest to Block

Burls are not left to sit after harvest; to prevent them spoiling in transit, sawmills were built close to the harvest areas and, in the early period, ran on water power. At the mill, the burl is cut into two types of block:

• Ebauchon: A rectangular block cut from the interior of the burl; high yield, but random grain direction. It's considered the economic standard of factory production.

• Plateaux: Cut from the bark-covered outer section; larger, and with superior grain orientation. This is why artisan makers prefer plateaux.

Cut blocks are boiled to remove resin and sap; unboiled briar gives a hot smoke with a poor taste either way. Early attempts are said to have "exploded" during smoking when the pipes hadn't been dried; there is also a theory that the boiling technique was inspired by cork-stopper manufacturing in the same region. After boiling, blocks are left to dry naturally in open air for 2-5 years. Rushed drying results in bad taste and cracking when smoked, which is why well-dried briar is considered the first requirement of a quality pipe. The process by which a block becomes a pipe is covered in the article on how a pipe is made, and the finishing techniques applied to the body are covered in surface finishes.

Oil curing

The best-known alternative to natural drying is oil curing, patented by Dunhill founder Alfred Dunhill by 1913. In this process, pipes are fitted by their bowls onto brass pins heated by gas flames; over weeks, the hot oil works its way through the fibers, collecting the remaining resin and sap. The method's real purpose wasn't refinement of taste but speed and cost: by drawing off the remaining sap from French briar, it eased the new pipe's break-in period.

The Geography of Briar

The center of gravity of briar sourcing has shifted throughout history: first France and Corsica, then Italy's Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia regions, Greece, the Algeria-Morocco corridor, and Spain each came to the fore in turn. Today the main sources are known to be Italy, Greece, Spain, and Morocco.

Materials such as meerschaum, corncob, and bog oak are also used as alternatives to briar; for a comparative look, see the article on pipe bowl materials.