Better than Briar? What History Tells!: Difference between revisions

Today, most every smoker would agree that the briar is the perfect wood for a tobacco pipe. (Perfect: having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.) For almost 175 years, briar, having been discovered quite accidentally, has been the standard against which all other woods have been compared. This is one attempt to explain briar to a lay person: “No real briar is ever used in pipe-making. The so-called briar is a mispronunciation of the French word bruyere, the name for heather” (“With the Retailer,” ''The Tobacco Leaf'', July 26, 1905). How about this: “The original briar pipe was made of a root or the stump and root of briar, whether wild rose, blackberry briar, or raspberry briar, or some other special type of briar is uncertain. Webster, under the head of briar root, says it is the root of the Southern Smilax laurifolia and S. Walteri that is used for tobacco pipes” (A. D. Webster, ''A Handbook of Forestry'', 1920). It’s hard to believe that in the early 20th Century, there were some who had yet to figure out what, precisely, is ''la bruyère''. And it’s even harder to accept this from a book published in this century: “Commonly used ''briar'' (my emphasis) woods are the Brazilian walnut, the manzanita, the myrtle, the mahogany, the walnut, the oak and the California redwood” (Massimo Gregori Grgic, ''Yacht Design Handbook'' (2015); the author could be excused because this is found in Chapter 17: The furniture materials.

The most detailed scientific study of briar is G. Toumis et al., “Characteristics of Briarwood” (''Holzforschung'', Volume 42, 1988) to determine “…the characteristics that make it a preferred material for making smoking pipes, and perhaps suggest replacements.”

Were there ever other woods that were better than briar, the most popular, commonly-used medium for a tobacco pipe today in performance, cost, and outward appearance? History tells that many woods were tested and compared with briar for hardness, tactility, and smokability. Unspooling this history reveals many disappointing tryouts and tests in the hope of finding suitable alternatives and substitutes.  

In 1876, ''Cope’s Tobacco Plant'' listed 27 different woods.