Alternative Woods Used in Pipe Making

Alternative woods used in pipe making are the second-choice materials makers turned to when briar was unavailable or too costly. Since no tree fully matches briar's heat resistance and pore structure, these species never replaced briar, but they kept pipe production going through wartime years, embargoes, and economic downturns.

Species That Were Tried

The recorded list includes maple, cherry, black walnut, oak, olive, rosewood, manzanita, mesquite, beech, hickory, mountain laurel, mahogany, ebony, boxwood, and jujube. Far Eastern and African hardwoods such as wenge and jichimu have also been tried regionally. The common problem is the same: these woods are generally softer, their pore structure is more closed, and the bowl's interior surface is more prone to burning than briar's. This is why bowls made from alternative wood are usually left thicker, and in some traditions the interior surface is treated separately as well.

Cherry: The One Tradition That Survived

Among the species on the list, only cherry wood turned into a lasting production line. In France, Eugène-Léon Ropp took out a patent in 1869 on making pipes from cherry wood and set up his workshop the following year in Bussang, in the Vosges. Records indicate that although the workshop also turned to briar starting in 1917, the brand's identity was associated with cherry to the end; production stopped in 1991, and the brand passed to Cuty-Fort Entreprises in 1994. The distinctive look of cherry pipes comes from leaving the bark on the bowl.

In America, meanwhile, Missouri Meerschaum — known for corncob pipes — continues to carry its hardwood-turned Ozark Mountain line in its catalog. These models are made from birch bodies and offered in maple and cherry tones — meaning "cherry" here refers to a color and shape tradition. For the brand's corncob production, see the Corncob Pipe entry.

Beech and the War Years

The best-known example of alternative wood born of necessity is Stanwell. When bringing briar from England and France became impossible during the Second World War, Poul Nielsen began producing pipes from Danish beech in 1942 at a woodworking workshop called Kyringe. Once the war ended and trade returned to normal, he switched his preference to briar; in 1948, given the prestige English names carried in pipe-smoking at the time, he changed the brand's name to Stanwell. That pipes from this period were small in size relates not just to wood but also to the scarcity of tobacco at the time.

A Borderline Case Not Counted as Wood

Oak that begins fossilizing over centuries buried without air in a bog — that is, morta — occupies an odd place on this list: whether it counts technically as wood at all is debatable. Because it has to be searched for and extracted from a peat bog with long iron rods, its supply is even more laborious than briar's, and only a small portion of any extracted trunk remains usable. The line Trevor Talbert produces from oak morta pulled from bogs in northwestern France, given an age of 4,500 years, was influential in bringing the material recognition in contemporary pipe making; see the Morta (Bog Oak) entry for details.