A Visit to a Briar Sawmill: Sassetta, the 1980S

A visit to a briar sawmill is a travel piece by American pipe importer and writer R.D. Field, published in the winter 1987 issue of Pipe Smoker magazine. The text puts on record one of the least-known links in the briar trade: the cutting mill (Italian: segheria) that stands between the digger in the forest and the maker at the bench.

Since pipe literature devotes most of its attention to makers and brands, notes from someone who saw firsthand this waystation where raw material becomes a block are today valued primarily as a period document. It should also be added that Field wasn't an impartial observer; in those same years he was the United States importer of Ashton pipes.

A Rule Changes

The event the text hinges on is a regulatory change. According to reports, Italy lifted its restriction on exporting raw briar abroad in the autumn of 1984; before that date, the wood could only leave the country in a processed form — as turned blanks. This information hasn't been confirmed by an independent regulatory record, but its consequences can be traced through the narrative: the change gave English and American workshops, which for years had had to buy Italian briar through middlemen, the chance to purchase directly. Ashton going straight to the source, having struggled to find blocks large enough for its big bowls, is one of the earliest examples of this; that the brand's founder, William Ashton-Taylor, went on to select his wood in person twice a year in subsequent years shows the relationship became a lasting one.