There was recently a thread on Alt.Smokers.Pipes about olivewood pipes, or "olivier" in French. Some love them, some hate them, I think they are beautiful. Those who are curious to see some examples should check out the Spanu catalog here to see some really interesting examples of this unusual wood. I have only tried making one olivewood pipe in my pipemaking career, seen here in a photo from 2001. This was not an attempt to make anything particularly exciting, just a little fun for my own collection - I kept it and smoked it until I had to sell it to help raise money for our move to France. I used a Russian variant of olivewood instead of the more prevalent Italian variety, and it has a unique and different appearance. I still have a large-enough chunk of the wood to make another pipe from, so maybe someday there will be a real Talbert olivewood yet...
I have a few Spanu olivewoods--one is pure olive, the other has a briar bowl inset. I also have one with an olivewood outer shell, and the inset bowl is juniper wood!!
ReplyDeleteI got them to see how they affected the taste of tobaccos, so I mostly smoked them with GH Brown Flake, which, while delicious, is pretty neutral.
Short answer--they do, and I'm not sure I want that. The juniper pipe had a lovely smell, however, and the olivewood was gorgeous.
--Toren