Some Recent Morta Pipes

[RDPipes]

I learned something today.
4000 year old oak gees, I don't even have a pair boots that old.

 

[ExcessEnergy]

Morta is Oak that has been soaking in a peat bog for several thousand years and has begun the process of fossilization.  The tannins in the bog have been adsorbed into the wood turning it black.  The longer the wood has soaked in the bog the more black it becomes.  After about 4,000 years the wood is completely black.

Morta (or Bog Oak) tends to be lighter than Briar, smoke dry and imparts little to no flavor to the tobacco.

But, honestly the best thing about Morta is knowing that you are smoking from a piece of a tree that lived so long ago.

Todd

Okay, so, as I understand it, Morta is supposed to smoke dryer than briar (sounds like a slogan), but is more vulnerable to damage than briar, although not as much as meerschaum, is a whole lot rarer than either, takes more work to obtain in the proper condition and volume for pipe carving and is therefore more expensive than an otherwise equivalent briar pipe?  But it smokes a little better and is simply cool because it's like smoking out of a fossil, er, almost.  Well, I have to say that the pipes shown on here and some of the Morta pipe carver sites I found after reading your post sure look beautiful, but I am wondering if the premium charged for Morta is really worth it.  I guess the only way to be sure is to buy one and see.  Toward that end, I bid on a couple on eBay today.  The price of one just zoomed above my pain threshold, but maybe the other one will stay closer to my tolerance level.

I've been smoking pipes for 48 years and never heard of the things until signing on here.  Thanks.

 

[Briar Spirit]

Stunning pipes Todd, that Celtic Dublin rings all the bells and whistles, marvellous work.

 

[taharris]

Stunning pipes Todd, that Celtic Dublin rings all the bells and whistles, marvellous work.

Thank you.

 

[danindayton]

:bounce: I am waiting semipatiently for my Taharris morta.  Todds beautiful work here prompted me to order a devil anse morta.  

Todd has been superlative to work with and I hope to see him at Smokers Haven in March.

danindayton
ilurkalot

 

[taharris]

I will be at Smokers Haven in March.

How did you know?

 

[idbowman]

Great looking pipes, as always, Todd.

One of these days I'll bite the bullet and get a hold of a Morta pipe.

 

[balkan_boy]

I have 5 of them, 3 of which came today. Pics later, morta is the most awesome material. Smokes like meerschaum, or even better.

I just love it.

 

[danindayton]

taharris
"I will be at Smokers Haven in March.

How did you know?"

ilurkalot on the pipemakers forum.

danindayton
ilurkalot

 

[pipe dreamer]

You do great work.

 

[taharris]

Thank you Pipe Dreamer.

Todd

 

[ExcessEnergy]

I picked up a new Moretti morta on eBay from Marco for what I regarded as a bargain price, just to see how they smoke without making a large financial commitment. But, now that I've done that, and before I take the plunge to order a nice long Canadian from Todd like Cajun's, some questions occurred to me:

1. Do mortas cycle like briars (i.e., do you have to rest them for 24 hours after smoking them once, and preferably longer)?

2. Or do they cycle like meerschaums, where you can just clean 'em and load & light 'em again, so long as you clean out the bowl thoroughly?

3. Or do you build up a cake in them like a briar?

4. Are there any other cycling or other care steps that should be taken beyond cleaning them out with pipe cleaners after every bowl, like a briar?

5. Are they more or less subject to burn-through like a briar?

I did not find any answers to these questions browsing around the Web, but I figured you fellows would know.

 

[taharris]

I picked up a new Moretti morta on eBay from Marco for what I regarded as a bargain price, just to see how they smoke without making a large financial commitment.  But, now that I've done that, and before I take the plunge to order a nice long Canadian from Todd like Cajun's, some questions occurred to me:

1.  Do mortas cycle like briars (i.e., do you have to rest them for 24 hours after smoking them once, and preferably longer)?

2.  Or do they cycle like meerschaums, where you can just clean 'em and load & light 'em again, so long as you clean out the bowl thoroughly?

3.  Or do you build up a cake in them like a briar?

4.  Are there any other cycling or other care steps that should be taken beyond cleaning them out with pipe cleaners after every bowl, like a briar?

5.  Are they more or less subject to burn-through like a briar?

I did not find any answers to these questions browsing around the Web, but I figured you fellows would know.

1). I generally smoke my briars and mortas several times in a day before letting them rest and I get good results.

2). I don't have a lot of experience with Mers, but see 1 above.

3). A little bit of cake is a good idea.

4). Nope. Treat them just like briar.

5). Not that I have heard.

The only down side to morta is that it may be more prone to cracking at the shank stem junction if mishandled because it is not a burl and the grain is fairly straight and open. It is Oak afterall.

Todd

 

[ExcessEnergy]

1). I generally smoke my briars and mortas several times in a day before letting them rest and I get good results.

2). I don't have a lot of experience with Mers, but see 1 above.

3). A little bit of cake is a good idea.

4). Nope.  Treat them just like briar.

5). Not that I have heard.

The only down side to morta is that it may be more prone to cracking at the shank stem junction if mishandled because it is not a burl and the grain is fairly straight and open.  It is Oak afterall.

Todd

Hi, Todd,

And thank you for your reply.  Wow!  I've never smoked the same pipe more than once in a 24 hour period in the last 46 years, meerschaums excepted.  When I first started in 1967 in college, against the advice of a pipe-smoking classmate of mine, I tried smoking my bulldog a second time and it was pretty wet on the second run, despite being cleaned after the first bowl of the day.  The same result obtained with my Oom Paul, so I gave it up and followed my classmate's advice (since he was so much wiser than I, being 18 and a more experienced pipe smoker and all :lol!: ).  I'll have to give that another try with some of my better pipes and see how it goes.  That would really be a laugh, since the major concern that drove my acquisition of over 130 pipes was my perceived need to rotate them after one bowl at least every 24 hours (in fact, I avoid smoking the same pipe in the same month or two).  Maybe I'll put half the collection on eBay.

I have heard that mortas are a bit more delicate than briars.  But the one little Moretti that I bought as an inexpensive experiment has a pretty straight bore to the bowl, so there will be no need to screw around with the bit in the stem, thus avoiding the chance of damage from removal and reinsertion.[/quote]

 

[taharris]

Jeff,  you musr have misunderstood.  What I meant was that you should rest your pipes at least a week between bowls.   :twisted: 

In all seriousness, a quick swab with a napkin in the bowl and a pipe cleaner through the shank and she is ready to go.

I don't smoke aromatics, so I really don't know if that makes a difference.

Todd

 

[ExcessEnergy]

Jeff,  you musr have misunderstood.  What I meant was that you should rest your pipes at least a week between bowls.   :twisted: 

In all seriousness, a quick swab with a napkin in the bowl and a pipe cleaner through the shank and she is ready to go.

I don't smoke aromatics, so I really don't know if that makes a difference.

Todd

 :lol!: 

Yes, I've done that very thing with the swabbing out.  Aromatics definitely make a (bad) difference.  I started off with Rattray's Black Mallory and Red Rapparee, and they weren't as bad, moisture-wise, being English blends.  But then, when I was in Texas in the middle '70's my girlfriend's father got me smoking his fave blend, a strong vanilla aromatic black tobacco called Early Darkness.  Women loved the aroma (or so they said), so I smoked it by the pound, but it really gunked up the pipes and was very hard to smoke dry or cool (all that sugar, don't you know?).  I kept at it, thinking it was "normal."  After all, her dad was an M.D., had been smoking pipes longer than I'd been alive and he seemed content to just puff away, gurgling along all the while.

Eventually (like only 15 years ago), after talking with the guys at a couple of my local pipe shops, I learned that other tobaccos, less aromatic and properly humidified, would smoke far more felicitously in all of my pipes, be they briar, meers, cherry wood, cobs or what have you (don't laugh; it only took me twenty years or so).  I still have many tall containers of Early Darkness and its smoke-alikes sealed beneath my bar.  Not much chance of them finding their way into my pipes anytime soon.

Now that I'm an old geezer, I find that the best smoking pipe and tobacco combinations stay lit all the way to the bottom and leave nothing but a nice, white cigarette-like ash in the bowl, leaving a stem that very easy to clean and requiring nothing more than a tap on the cork to empty the bowl.

 

[taharris]

Better late than never!