Materials and construction of pipe

The material and shape of a pipe has a profound influence upon the aesthetics and smoking qualities. Tobacco pipes come in many shapes and styles.

Briar

The greater part of pipes sold today, whether hand made or machine made, are fashioned from briar. Briar is a mainly good wood for pipe making for a lot of reasons. The primary and mainly important is its natural confrontation to fire. The second is its inherent capacity to absorb moisture. The burl absorbs water in nature to provide the tree in the dry times and likewise will absorb the moisture that is a byproduct of combustion. Briar is cut from the root burl of the heath tree (Erica arborea), which is native to the rocky and sandy earth of the Mediterranean area. Briar burls are cut into two types of blocks; ebauchon and plateaux. Ebauchon is taken from the heart of the burl while plateaux is taken from the outer part of the burl. While both sorts of blocks can produce pipes of the highest quality, most artisan pipe makers desire to use plateaux because of its higher graining.

A meerschaum pipe

Meerschaum (hydrated magnesium silicate), a mineral found in small shallow deposits mainly around the city of Eskişehir in central Turkey, is prized for its flexibility which allows it to be carved into a lot of decorative and figural forms. It has been used since the 17th century and, with clay pipes, represented the most familiar medium for pipes before the beginning of briar as the material of selection in the 19th century. The word "meerschaum" means "sea foam" in German, alluding to its natural white color and its surprisingly low weight. Meerschaum is a very porous mineral that absorbs elements of the tobacco during the smoking process, and gradually modifies color to a golden brown. Old, well-smoked meerschaum pipes are prized for their typical coloring. In choosing a meerschaum pipe it is suitable to take promises that the product is indeed carved from a block of meerschaum, and is not made from meerschaum dust collected after carving and mixed with an emulsifier then pressed into a pipe shape. These products are not absorbent, do not color, and lack the smoking quality of the block carved pipe.

Clay

Clay in this case is almost always a very fine white clay with low shrink-swell properties, often referred to as ball clay. Top quality clay pipes are made in a labor-intensive process that requires beating all lumps out of the clay, hand-rolling each pipe before molding it, piercing with a fine wire, molding, air drying, seam trimming, and carefully controlled firing in a kiln. Traditionally, white clay pipes are un-glazed. Clays burn "hot" in comparison to other types of pipes, so they are often difficult for most pipe-smokers to use. Their proponents claim that, unlike other materials, a well-made clay pipe gives a "pure" smoke, with no flavor addition from the pipe bowl. In addition to aficionados, reproductions of historical clay styles are used by some re-enactors. Clay pipes were once considered disposable items and the large quantities discarded in the past are often used as an aid in dating by industrial archaeologists. They were created in huge numbers in Broseley in Shropshire, and the name of Broseley became almost synonymous with this type of pipe. The white pipe industry began its decline in the late 1800s, losing ground to the cigar, briar pipe, and the cigarette. However, the industry continued to produce pipes on a limited scale. In the twentieth century, a lower-quality "clay" pipes was made from porcelain slip poured into a mold, thus known as "slip-cast" pipes. These slip-cast pipes are thin-walled, fragile, porous, of very low quality, and impart unwanted flavors to a smoke. The clay pipe industry in the U.S.A. started in the Colonial era; although best known for later reed-stem and glazed pipes, white clay pipes were also produced.

Calabash

Calabash gourds (usually with meerschaum or porcelain bowls set inside them) have long made prized pipes, but they are labour-intensive and these days quite costly. Because of this expense, pipes with bodies made of wood (usually mahogany) in its place of gourd, but the similar classic shape are sold as calabashes. Both wood and gourd pipes are functionally the same. They both have an air chamber beneath the bowl which serves to cool, dry, and mellow the smoke. There are also briar pipes being sold as calabashes. These classically do not have an air chamber and are named only because of their external shape. The structure of a calabash pipe generally consists of a downward curve that ends with an upcurve where the bowl sits. This low center of importance allows for the user to easily hold the pipe by the mouth alone, leaving his hands free. This advantage was often utilized by actors who wanted to depict their character smoking while permitting them to do other business at the same time. That is why the character Sherlock Holmes, who never used this type of pipe in the stories, is stereotypically depicted as favoring it because early dramatic productions, especially those starring William Gillette and Basil Rathbone, made this artistic decision. In fact, Holmes, who preferred very harsh tobacco, would probably have disliked the calabash because of the above-mentioned mellowing effect. Gourds specifically intended for pipemaking are usually "hand trained" while they are still green & growing. Every few days, after the fruit has begun to develop, the grower will bend the "neck" of the gourd, until it has formed into a near semi-circle. These are mainly grown in South Africa.

Corncob pipe

On the other end of the scale, "corncob" pipes made from maize cobs are inexpensive and effective, even if some regard them as inelegant. The cobs are first dried for two years. Then they are hollowed out to make a bowl form. The bowls are dipped in a plaster-based mixture and varnished or lacquered on the outside. Shanks made from maple wood are then inserted into the bowls. The first and largest manufacturer of corncob pipes is Missouri Meerschaum, located in Washington, Missouri in the USA. Missouri Meerschaum has fabricated the pipes since 1869. General Douglas MacArthur and George Lincoln Rockwell were perhaps the most famous smokers of this type of pipe, along with the cartoon characters Popeye and Frosty the Snowman.Corncob pipes remain popular today because they are inexpensive and require no "break-in" period like briar pipes. For these two reasons, corncob pipes are often recommended as a "Beginners pipe." But, their enjoyment is by no means limited to beginners. Corncob pipes are equally valued by both learners and experienced smokers who simply desire a cool, clean smoke. Pipesmokers who wish to sample a wide variety of different tobaccos and blends also might keep a stock of corncobs on hand to permit them to try new flavors without "carryover" from an already-used pipe, or to keep a potentially bad tasting tobacco from adding its flavor to a more costly or favored pipe.

Metal

An aluminum-stemmed pipe made by Falcon.Metal is an uncommon substance for making tobacco pipes, but they are not unknown. The most universal form of this is a pipe with a stem and shank made of aluminum, which serves as a heat sink. Mouthpieces are made of vulcanite or lucite. The bowls are removable, though not interchangeable between manufacturers. They are made of diverse materials to allow the smoker to try different characteristics or to dedicate particular bowls for particular tobaccos.Other metal tobacco pipes include the Japanese kiseru and the Arabian midwakh.

Stone

Mississippian and Eastern Woodlands style "acorn" peace pipePipes traditionally used by many Native American tribes use bowls carved from catlinite, a relatively porous metamorphic rock. In the Orient, various types of the mineral jade have been employed. Other stones, such as alabaster or slate, have also been used to fashion bowls.