Briar Block Sourcing

Briar block sourcing is the first decision a pipe maker makes before ever sitting down at the bench. The briar burl is dug from the ground, cut into blocks at the sawmill, boiled, and left to dry for a long stretch of time; by the time it reaches the maker's hands, it carries a chain of processing stretched over years.

Which link of that chain a block was taken from determines how much the maker can actually know about the wood in hand. Briar sourcing is therefore not treated as a matter of shopping in pipe making, but as an extension of material knowledge.

Two Block Forms Set by the Cut

Whoever cuts the burl into blocks chooses, with every cut, between two goals: maximizing the number of pieces obtained, or favoring the grain direction of the pieces. This choice is why two distinct forms of wood reach workshops.

A cut favoring piece count yields ebauchon. Taken from the interior of the burl, these blocks are roughly rectangular and square-edged; their surfaces are trued at the sawmill, so they are easy to fix on the lathe. Where the grain will fall, however, is left largely to chance. The great majority of briar pipes are understood to come from this type of block.

A cut favoring grain direction yields plateaux. Taken from the outer part of the burl, these pieces resemble a quarter circle, are larger than ebauchon, and carry on their outer face the hard bark that was in contact with the soil. Few plateaux come out of any given burl. Pipes with pronounced straight grain are almost always made from plateaux blocks. The relationship between block form and the pattern that surfaces is covered separately in the article on grain.