Tim Fuller: Bocote

 

	I confess that I've been falling seriously behind on my Tim Fuller pipe updates. That includes pipes in "otherwoods" (as we've come to call them) that I've tested and pipes that I've bought. But there comes a time to put embarrassment aside. Tim has an otherwood that is out of this world: Bocote I wish I could tell you more about what bocote is, but I don't know. One day it turned up, and it was interesting enough that I soon thought of it only in pipe terms. I mean, who cares what kind of wood it is? The stuff is incredible. It has an exceedingly striking grain, and bocote has an equivalent density to briar. (A bocote pipe would weigh the same as an equivalent briar one.)
	The photo shows the pipe as I received it: a good wax over the natural wood makes for a lighter pipe. Tim prefers the left-hand view, above.
	Two weeks later, and the pipe is darker (as the wax rubs off). And the photo shows the right-hand view, which I prefer. Why? Knots! The main concern when I began testing the pipe is that the knots might burn through. But they didn't. If anything, I prefer the knots for what they do to the overall image of the pipe, the twisting of grain and line. Among the many pipes I've smoked over the years, bocote is easily the best non-briar pipe. It stays warm but not hot during a smoke. Bocote broke in very easily, and smokes exceedingly smoothly. Bocote is a great wood and a great pipe. Yeah, I like it.

 

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