Beginning in 1937, Roy and Herb Brigham sought a way to eliminate tongue-bite and, coming to the conclusion that it was caused not by heat alone but also by acids and tars in the smoke itself, sought to discover the perfect material for a smooth-drawing, unobtrusive, yet effective filter. After considerable experimentation they came up with two ideal materials - bamboo, and the (then) much more readily available, rock maple.

With your Brigham pipe the filter can be used approximately 20-30 times with a dark brown filter indicating that its time to replace it (see below) and can also be cleaned, dried and re-used in a pinch. The rock maple filter uses no adhesives and can pass a pipe cleaner.