Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-12-25
THE FRENCH BRIER.
WHERE THE WOOD COMES FROM
AND HOW THE PIPE is MADE.

The Raw Material In Blocks Comes Here
In Bags-PIpes Are Made by High Grade
Machinery-How the Patterns Are Used
as Guides-Holes Filled with Cement.
The brier used in the making of brier
pipes comes chiefly from France, and
largely from the region of the Pyrenees.
1t is said that the very best brier comes
from Sicily. Only the root, or that part of
the wood that grows underground, is used.
1t is sawed into oblong blocks, which have
no semblance to the form of pipe, but
each of sufficient Dimensions to permit the
fashioning of pipe from it. The sawed
blocks are soaked in salt water dried and
seasoned. They are imported into this
country in large bags.
In the pipe factory here the brier blocks
are sorted out in sizes for larger and small
er pipes, and then if necessary they are
trimmed down before going to the ma
chimes that are actually to shape the pipe.
Little slabs or bits may be sawed off the
block to hiring it down close to the size of
the pipe that is to be cut from it, but not
much needs to be cut off for the blocks
are sawed originally so that there will he
as little waste as possible. Then the brier
block goes to the horer the first Of the
machines employed III the actual fashion
ing of the pipe
The boring machine has three knives,
set in the same plane. The middle knife
boTes out the bowl Of the pipe. The two
outsF knives cut away the wood on the
outside and form the shape of the pipe.
These knives, set In lathe, make more
than 1000 revolutions a minute. The
middle knife, which bores out the bowl,
| IA IA two N
which shape the bowl The borer outs the
pipe out to its full depth. The cutters, In
the case of an egg shaped pipe, dig down
10 the point of the pipes greatest circum-
ference. In making wood pipe of the
bulldog shape an additional side tool g
used to shape the bowl for a little space be-
low Its greatest circumference. In making
an egg shaped pipe the knives are made to
turn. In making pipe Of bulldog shape
the block rs revo1vod.
As the brier block comes from the borers
II rs still brier block, with the pipe bowl
bored down into one end of 1t and the out
side OF the pipe bowl shaped down for half
its depth. The block with the pipe thus
partly cut In 1t goes then to a lathe SINH
lar 10 the lathss used in cutting gun stocks
and other irregular forms. The cutting
tool used with this lathe is circular, like a
circular saw. it has peculiar, knfelike
teeth. 1t is revolved, like a circular saw, at
| high velocity The brier block, with the
! bowl partly shaped out is secured upon
the lathe, to which has already been at
tached a metal pattern Of the shape that it
is desired to cut the block. This metal
pattern is made to turn against smooth
edged wheel attached to the lathe. The
brier block turns with the pattern and is
brought into contact with the cutting
wheel in precisely the same manner that
the pattern is brought into contact with
the smooth wheel AS the pattern is turn
ed the center line of the block is brought
near to or il recedes from the teeth of the
cutting tool, and the teeth cut into the
wood deeply or lightly accordingly Wheth-
er the stem Of the pipe is round, oval or
square makes no difference The cutting
wheel cuts away the wood so that the wood
I that is left is shaped in accordance with
the pattern.
The work of the irregular lathe is done
very quickly, and the pipe COMES from it
with bowl and stem completely shaped
out. The tobacco bowl has been bored out
but there is as vet no hole through the
stem. The stem here spoken of is the brier
stem continuous from the bowl, and not a
bit, or mouthpiece.
The pipe is then rough finished and fine
finished on wheels covered, one with coarse
and the other with fine sandpaper, and
subsequently is further fine finished by
polishing it on wheel with ground pun
ice stone
After the first fine finishing the pipes
are assorted into 1rsts and seconds. Firsts
are pipes without blemish; seconds are
pipes that have any outside def. ct
The hole through the stem is bored with
a steel wire having cutting tip and turn
ing rapidly in lathe. Fine pipes are CEN
tered, so that the hole through the stem
may be bored exactly in the center; ordi-
nary pipes are held against the wire borer
by hand, but pip~s thus bored are almost
without exception bored squarely in the
center.
Then the pipe goes into another machine,
which cuts the thread in the end of the
stem to hold the bit, or mouthpiece Then
the bandit it is to have one-around the
wood stem where it Is joined by the bit or
mOuthpiece is put on, and the bit Is at
tached to the pipe
Most brier in its natural state is of rath-
er light color. If the pipe is to be finish
ed in natural color, it is treated with lin
seed oil, which brings out the grain and
the beauty of the wood. The oil also makes
the pipe slightly darker in color, and it
grows darker in smoking Some buyers
prefer a dark colored pipe, and so some
pipes are finished artifcially of a darker
color. Some pipes having what is called a
hard varnish finish, are finished very dark
and are highly polished on leather buffers.
brier pipe with the least outside de-
feet is classed as second. At wholesale
seconds are sold at 20 to 40 per cent less
than drsts. Any hole or other opening In
the outside of a pipe is filled up with a
paste or cement made for the purpose and
colored to match the wood. 1t may h; e
the defect or it may not but 1t makes the
pipe practically as nearly perfect as posi-
BILE. A second that is defective on the out
side only may last as long as perfect
pipe, and it is just as good to smoke
New York Sun.