Monterey

Monterey is a pipe series released during the Second World War by American manufacturer Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), with bowls carved not from Mediterranean briar but from manzanita root grown in California. The name is used together with "Mission Briar," the commercial term for the native wood used in the series, and represents one of the best-known briar-substitute experiments of the period.

A Search Forced by the War

The war years squeezed the American pipe industry from two directions: briar shipments from the Mediterranean were cut off, and metals such as aluminum, used for fittings, were tied up in military priority. Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, which ran the Kaywoodie brand, launched a search for a domestically grown hard root in order to keep production going. A subsidiary called Pacific Briarwood Company, established in 1941 for this purpose, was tasked with cutting and curing manzanita root on the slopes of the Santa Cruz mountains in California.

Manzanita is a shrub belonging to the same heather family (Ericaceae) as briar, and its roots form tight-grained burls suited to pipe making. Its burning behavior and flavor transfer, however, are considered not to produce the same result as Mediterranean briar. In the same years, Reiss-Premier Pipe Co., also part of the Kaywoodie organization, likewise made pipes from this wood; "Mission Briar" is thus not a single firm's solution but a shared one from the wartime American industry. For a broader survey of similar searches, see the article alternative woods used in pipe making.