Morta?

Morta tends to be between five and ten thousand years old when collected. Think it's good to go. :mrgreen:

Many if not most pipe makers thinks that briar should be aged for a period of time. !0 years seems to be the number that is often thrown out.

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I have 5 blocks of old growth Algerian briar in my shop that I've owned since 1982. It is gnarly, flawed, and hard as a rock and totally worthless for producing a good pipe. There is more BS thrown around on aging briar than most subjects I see- I buy my briar from a 3rd generation cutter in the Calabria region of Italy- most of his briar is from 25-35 year old growth. He cuts it, boils it for 24 hours, and ages it 3 months. When I get it, you can still feel the moisture. Wood of any kind dries at a rate of about 1" per year, depending on humidity where you live. I throw it in the drying rack, pull it out after a year and drill it- if moisture comes to the surface from the heat of drilling, I finish drilling, rough shape it and throw it back in the rack for a couple of months...After 2 years, it's not going to get any drier.
On Morta- a lot of it is carbon dated. The logs are pulled out of the bog completely saturated. I don't know the exact process, but they are probably cut and air dried in thick planks for a year or two before being planed down to final dimension. All the Morta I've bought has felt dry when I received it- no need to dry it any further. I leave it wrapped in the plastic it's shipped in until I drill it- I'm assuming rapid temperature changes on a air dried piece of oak could result in cracking...

I strongly suggest to let it rest for another 5000 years - better be sage than sorry! :mrgreen: :wink:

"Aging" is not necessary. If wood (whether morta or briar) is properly dried after being milled, there's no need to "age" the wood beyond that. A 2" thick block of wood will come to equilibrium with the surrounding environment in 3 years max, and probably quicker than that if it's stored correctly--in a dry spot with good airflow around it. The rule of thumb for air-drying is one year for every inch of thickness plus one year. When morta (bog oak) is retrieved from the bogs, it's pretty waterlogged, and the sawyers set it up to dry either in a kiln or in a shed that allows for good airflow. It seems like 4 years is about the longest that any of it takes to air-dry, and kiln-drying is much quicker. There's no wood on earth that requires 10 years to cure after being cut.
That said, when you move wood from one environment to another, especially if one of those environments is climate-controlled, then it's important to let the wood rest for a while, usually a couple of weeks to a couple of months, in order for the wood to re-acclimate to the new environment. But acclimation doesn't take years.
"Aged" blocks make a good marketing ploy, and I can under the sentimental attraction to an old piece of wood, but a 50-year-old block of wood has no intrinsic advantage over a 5-year-old block that was properly milled and dried.

Zack, how do you know how old the morta is? Does it come with paperwork saying it is 5000 or 10,000 years old? Who does the carbon dating? If I buy a morta pipe from you I would want to know the exact age down to the year month and day.
Is it better to have a piece that is 5000 or 10,000, does the older smoke better than the newer stuff? Get working on a group 5 Dublin for me. I want a perfect blast and a saddle stem. I am willing to pay you 119.89.

jefff, you must have a death wish. Think about cutting my throat like that. Are you sure you want to proceed with this course of action?

On Morta- a lot of it is carbon dated. The logs are pulled out of the bog completely saturated. I don't know the exact process, but they are probably cut and air dried in thick planks for a year or two before being planed down to final dimension. All the Morta I've bought has felt dry when I received it- no need to dry it any further. I leave it wrapped in the plastic it's shipped in until I drill it- I'm assuming rapid temperature changes on a air dried piece of oak could result in cracking...

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I have bought Morta that came with a certificate showing it had been dated. Can only assume it is legit. The wood was dry and great to work with. These were rather large blocks and cost over $60.00 each with shipping.

I had a guy ask me to make him a Morta and when I told him I didn't have any on hand,he said no problem I saw some on Ebay-I'll order it and send to you. When I got it you could almost wring water from those blocks. They were on the small side and I believe came from Ireland. I removed the plastic they were wrapped in and waxed the ends and set them on a shelf,where they proceeded to literally tear themselves apart. I have never seen wood warp,twist and crack like that stuff did. I managed to get a few pieces large enough for tampers out of the 4 blocks.

Another gent I had made a Morta for sent me some blocks he bought out of the goodness of his heart. Those also were very wet ( 42% according to my meter) and I believe came from the same place as the other 4. I left those in the plastic but did poke some pin holes in it. A year later they are dry( according to the meter),but they did twist and warp some but should be usable if I ever get around to trying one although I think I'll use them for tampers or something.

Here's an interesting discussion of aged briar on Pipemaker's Forum. Apparently there's some disagreement between pipe makers about whether extended aging is beneficial for briar. Not sure how this translates to morta, though.

jefff, ok pal, game on. Just be sure to watch your back, I have a butter knife with your name on it.

Perhaps a more pertinent question is to ask where a pipe maker sourced the block. Most of the morta used by american pipe makers, for example, comes from Steve Norse. Steve will have details about the age and condition of the morta lots he receives and resells. It's a bit harder to pin down the source of morta for pipe makers outside the US. I know Becker primarily used a source in Germany as did Radice for a while. I don't know where Duca pipes sources blocks.

No wonder I always get beat on morta pipes..... I wasn't aware of the "thunderdome rules"! Two men enter, one man leaves...... smoking a new pipe. lol