A briar that competes with my cobs.

[billhud]

Smoking a bowl of FM ATP in an oil cured Wiley #44 poker. If only all briars were so light and so cool and smooth from the get go. Oil curing doers make a difference in the smoothness of the pipe's smoke from the very beginning.

[DubintheDam]

Good tip...but that's why with 25 odd briars I keep pulling out a cob.

[Infin1ty]

How do you go about oil curing a Briar?

[Arizona]

I've got 13 briars and all but two are good smokes - the other two are OK just not my favs. So I've had no prob with briars, but I must say a $5 cob is still hard to beat. I have 4 cobs at the moment and plan on adding a couple more soon.

[Ultravox]

I have a cob that I've been smoking fairly regularly since late last year and it's going as strong as ever. As my (briar) pipe rotation is limited, I turn to my cobs a lot of the time and each smoke is always as marvellous as the next.

[EvanS]

Don't get me wrong, I love my cobs, especially the larger ones i got from Santa for Xmas.

But I really only use them for aro's. My briar selection is pretty well sorted out and the tobaccos that smokes best in each of them IS what get's smoked in them. Maybe it takes finding the briar/tobac combination that fits. Then again, maybe it's just me

[billhud]

I have briars that smoke great. It's just so few of the are truly as great as cobs. My Wiley is. I'm sure much of that has to due with the age of the wood and the oil curing Wilety uses. That's all.

[Mad Hatter]

I like my cobs because they're convenient, but the flavor of the smoke doesn't suit me nearly as well as a briar.

[billhud]

I prefer my pipes, regardless of material, to impart no flovor to the smoke.

[Mad Hatter]

Originally Posted by billhud

I prefer my pipes, regardless of material, to impart no flovor to the smoke.

Me too brother

[parris001]

I take it we're trolling the cob agenda again.......... don't you ever get tired of it budhill?

[tedski]

Originally Posted by billhud

I prefer my pipes, regardless of material, to impart no flovor to the smoke.

In that respect, meerschaum would fit the bill better than briar or cobs.


I enjoyed cobs when I first started smoking pipes - but now I much prefer the look, feel and variety of briar.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by parris001

I take it we're trolling the cob agenda again

We know billhud likes cobs - now we find out why an oil-cured briar stacks up in his opinion.

I'm interested enough to learn more about the oil-cured process and if/why it makes a more neutral pipe.

[Mad Hatter]

To expand on what I was saying and not to provoke anyone, I honestly have never noticed briar emparting its own flavor to my smoke. Cobs on the other hand taste like a moderately dirty pipe when I smoke them and sometimes burned wood when I smoke to the bottom. I think meerschaum has a meerschaum note and cherry wood definitely adds a flavor of its own until the inside of the bowl becomes charred. But one thing is definitely clear, and that is that I must buy more pipes so I can someday become better acquainted with each type of material

[billhud]

Oil curing removes the moisture and tannic acids from the briar. In this day and age when briar is not cured for several years, it's a method of ridding the moisture and tannic acid within the wood. It's why oild cured briars of equal volume are often so much lighter. It's disappointing so few makers oil cure their briar.

All those complaining about my posts should freely exercise their choice to simply not open any thread I start. It really is just that simple.