Tim Fuller: Box Elder

 

In early December, Tim Fuller told me that he had another experimental pipe, an "otherwood" dublin made from box elder. Hey! I'm always willing to smoke a pipe made from a different type of wood. The first aspect of box elder which impressed me no end was that the pipe itself had a very handsome grain. It reminded me very much of briar, with the exception that the weight is a tad less than briar. Following are photos I took after the tenth smoke.

 
 

Box elder smokes remarkably well, something I can state now that I've tried the pipe seventy times. No, I didn't give it that much rest between smokes, since I was too curious as to how it would do. The obvious answer is that it does great. Somewhere around the teens, however, one day I smoked the pipe too long, and there was a few pinpoints of darkening where whatever showed through. That wasn't burn through, since subsequently the pipe performed as well as ever, especially now that it has built up some cake. I can heartily recommend box elder to any pipe smoker.

 

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