*We recently received a new shipment of briar wood! We’ve been waiting for it since January, and it finally came in to port from Greece.  Here are some pictures of J.M. and Dan looking over the blocks after they were delivered by tractor trailer.  Beautiful wood!

“Pipe Lore: The Legend of Briar”

            “In 1857,” says Al, nesting into his easy chair, ever-present pipe in hand, “a French nobleman was traveling through the southernmost part of his country’s Jura Mountains.  In a small village called Saint-Claude, he settled down for a meal and the enjoyment of his favorite Turkish meerschaum pipe.  But, he broke the brittle bowl!

            “As it turned out,” Al continues, “a local woodcarver happened to have a chunk of aged root burl from the white heath tree {Erica arborea}, a woody shrub that grows in harsh, rocky soil.  It took the carver all night to carve a pipe from the rocklike wood.  After trying the new pipe,” Al puffs for emphasis, “ the elegant “Frenchman thought it far superior to his old meerschaum.  From that day on, briar’s fame spread- first throughout France, then all of Europe.

            “Today, 90 percent of all pipes are made of briar.  And, the village of Saint-Claude calls itself the world’s briar-pipe capital.”

            Briar destined for the world’s finest pipes still comes from the mountain country around the Mediterranean Sea in France, Italy, Greece, Spain, and the islands of Corsica and Sicily.  In these countries, diggers unearth the root burls and deliver them to the mills.  There, saws cut the largest part of the burls into blocks called ebauchons.  Blocks sawn from the upper and outer layer of the burl – distinguished by a pebble-textured “skin” – are named plateaux, and command top dollar.*