All rights reserved. Commercial use of any part of contents, including email addresses, is prohibited. Narrow tube of clay, wood, etc. with bowl at one end for drawing in smoke of tobacco. This is the closely-grained burl joint between the stem and roots of the White Heath, a tree found on the hillsides of mainly Mediterranean countries. Underground, this burl protects the briar wood, which is tough, close grained, porous, and nearly impervious to heat.
Good briar is hard to find.
Composed of the fossilized shells of tiny sea creatures that fell to the ocean floor millions of years ago, meerschaum is found in red clay deposits. Meerschaum deposits of the highest quality are found only in one place in the world - Eskishehir, in central Turkey. The All-American Corncob pipe. It is a length of hollowed-out corncob, usually from a special hybrid variety of corn, with a straight wooden stem and, sometimes, a inexpensive plastic mouthpiece. Some veteran pipe smokers buy corncobs by the dozens, smoke one until it burns out or goes sour, then throw it away and light up another.