FACTORY
Welcome to our Factory tour.
In this section we will briefly take you through the evolution of a
briar pipe beginning with the harvesting of the briar.
Contrary to what many believe, we do
not grow and harvest our own briar.
This task is left to the professional briar harvesters who supply
the briar blocks to our artisans.
Keep in mind that there are many harvesters selling many grades of briar. Savinelli
only purchases
the highest grades usually referred to as 'Extra Extra' grade.
So, just what is briar and where does it come from?
The best briar is found along the rocky coastline of the
Mediterranean, preferably Corsican or Sardinian briar.
The plant itself is called Erica
Arborea and is a bush that stands anywhere from
10 to 20 feet high. Just below the surface of the bush is a briar burl that is
formed as part of the
plants watering system. It is this burl that is dug up for harvesting.
| A briar harvester uses a pick to dig up a briar burl which lies just below the surface of the plant. The work is tedious and sometimes fraught with danger as many areas are steep and slippery. Each year it becomes more difficult to find workers willing to traverse the craggy coastline in |
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search of premium burls. About 50 years ago it was possible to find burls that ranged in age of 150 to 200 years, but with the increasing demand for pipes such burls no longer exist. Today burls average 50-75 years in age for the premium sector and considerably less for your drug store type variety. |
What does a Briar burl look like?
| Once all branches are cut away, the burl is separated from the roots and cleared of all branch and root leaving just the burl as shown being held in the photo to the far right. This is what all the climbing and sweating has led to. |
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What do they do with this burl?
Well, first of all there is no way of knowing whether or not
this burl will produce enough good briar
to produce a few or many pipes.
This cannot be
determined until the burl is dissected, or cut in half.
| As you can see at right, once cut in half the center is exposed as not being good for quality pipes. It is filled with cavities, cracks and sometimes even small stones. Each half is the quartered and only the outside areas, away from the center are considered useful. |  |
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Burl cut in half |
Quartered |
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Excess trimmed off |
Shaping the block |
8 blocks salvaged from 1 burl |
As one can see, there were 8 blocks salvaged from this one burl
and the rest is waste.
Keep in mind that out of the eight blocks, there may be some that eventually are
discarded as not good enough for
pipe production.
The next and final step in the blocks journey to becoming
a pipe is to enter a huge bath
where the blocks are boiled for 12 to 24 hours.
This
process removes all resins and any impurities that may be inside the briar block.
Once
this process is complete and the blocks have
had a chance to dry somewhat, they are placed
in sacks and eventually
offered for sale to the various pipe manufacturers.
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The photo at left is that of a worker inspecting
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