My New Morta

[trevert]

There is an even wider range in morta performance than there is in briar, from what I've experienced.
Harder and denser - The black morta I work with is much harder than briar. It's more resilient to burn-out by a long stretch. It is not cooler smoking, however - To the tongue, it's about the same. Finger-wise, it gets hotter to touch, but also cools back down faster... A bit like a thick-walled clay, really. This tan morta I just made performs similarly but doesn't seem to get as hot - Then again, it's much larger and thicker walled than most of the small black mortas I've made, so that's certainly a factor.
Weight - The black material is heavier than briar. The tan material is lighter than briar. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it might even be lighter than Turkish meerschaum, but I haven't done any side-by-side weighings.

 

[trevert]

My suggestion is to find a cheap one in the estate market, or get a friend to loan you one to smoke first. Briars are pretty much fire-and-forget, but I always try to talk a little to morta buyers about their favorite tobaccos first before they sink their cash into one, because it can be a wonderful experience or a terrible experience, depending on your tobacco tastes. I can pretty safely say that if you like the Gawith stuff like 1792 and Black XX, or Nightcap, Black Frigate, Old Ironsides, etc, that you would really like morta. Straight Virginias are more of an iffy proposition - Some guys like them in morta but I find the flavor tilt a little weird. Aromatics are almost universally nasty in morta, in my experience. I had ONE try at smoking Stanwell's Rose & Crown in a morta... Never again. 8O
And boy do I miss that stuff since moving back to the states. I guess we can't get it here. That was one of the few aromatics I ever really loved. It was my Every-December tobacco, like smoking gingerbread cookies.

 

[taerin]

I had no idea what morta was so I decided to look it up, first stages of fossilisation in a peat bog, interesting. That was the wierdest looking blast I've ever seen on a pipe, it looks rusticated, but pretty good looking none the less. How does it's cost compare with that of briar? I would guess it to be more rare and expensive.
From Wikipedia:

Bog wood at the Stumpy Knowe near South Auchenmade.Bog-wood, also known as morta is wood from trees that have been buried in peat bogs and preserved from decay by the acidic and anaerobic bog conditions, sometimes for hundreds or even thousands of years. The wood is usually stained brown by tannins dissolved in the acidic water. Bog-wood represents the early stages in the fossilisation of wood, with further stages ultimately forming lignite and coal over a period of many millions of years. Bog-wood may come from any tree species naturally growing near or in bogs, including oak (Quercus – "bog oak"), pine (Pinus), yew (Taxus), swamp cypress (Taxodium) and kauri (Agathis). Bog-wood is often removed from fields etc. and placed in clearance cairns.

 

[tbradsim1]

I have 2 Palo mortas Rhodesion, chubby billard, smoke only Nitecap in them, thanks for the good info on Morta, mine are the black, very light, did not know you could smoke them hard, cake buildup info is appreciated. The old cajun

 

[jharvard]

Informative thread. Thanks for all the good information. Beautiful and unique pipe. Thanks for sharing. :puffpipe:

 

[jameral]

That's an awesome looking pipe! To me it appears like a diamond pattern knurl, very cool.

 

[cigrmaster]

I smoke stictly VA flakes and Vaper flakes so not sure if Morta would suit me. They sure are cool looking though, if I can find one on the estate market maybe I will grab one, or maybe Trevor will sell me the one he is showing here since it is used, I am sure he wouldn't mind discounting it 75 percent, right Trev? :lol:

 

[trevert]

Ahh, "fussy and cheap"... Two of the picks on the "Choose two of these" pyramid :D

Fast - Inexpensive - Quality
One can only ever pick two of these.

 

[oldredbeard]

Thats a very beautiful pipe, wish I could just throw something that nice together out of spare parts.

 

[bentmike]

This is a great thread. Thanks for contributing everyone. Beautiful pipes trevert. I like Virginias and aros so I don't know if this type of pipe would work for me but they sure are cool to look at.

 

[photoman13]

Wow that is cool. I would love to see some more of your pipes.

 

[trevert]

You can find me with a big of googling, Photoman. The pipe is coming along really nicely, I must say. I've been smoking a bowl in it every night since I finished it and thus far it shows no signs of sourness or any other common problems. It's one of the best smoking pipes I've ever smoked. It's also going *really* nicely with western series "Hell on Wheels" on Netflix every night - The cragginess of the pipe goes well with the cragginess of the series. 8) Dunhill Elizabethan is really good in this, though the ribbon cut suffers from short smokes due to the smaller chamber diameter.
(Oddball observation - Over the years I've found that morta tends to perform better with a slightly smaller airhole and slightly smaller chamber bore than I would prefer with briar.)
The downside of the narrower chamber is that it burns through ribbon tobaccos really quickly unless I pack them very tight. It's terrific with flakes, though.

 

[ejames]

Wow that is cool. I would love to see some more of your pipes.

You haven't seen his pipes??!! 8O

 

[trevert]

Here's a news update for whomever may be interested. I've been smoking this pipe steadily ever since I posted this. It's already visibly darkening on the outside, especially on the shank, which is interesting. Unfortunately, I don't think this gold material is ready for prime time, or at least not something that I would want to sell. After about 8-10 bowls, I noticed that part of the interior wall had begun that familiar visual giveaway of burning, and further on, the front bowl wall started to develop a nice concavity as the material burned away. There are no flavor cues to this either - It just happily smokes along without giving off any nasty tastes to let me know the material was overheated. This is not something that would ever happen with the black morta I work with. I don't know if it's a trait of gold morta in general, or just this specific supply, but suffice to say this is not something I'd want to risk happening on a pipe I sold.
FWIW, I've applied a fix which is working well so far. I scraped back the cake and scrubbed away the grey split surface of the burnout spot till I got back to bare wood. I then mixed up a sodium silicate-based coating mix and applied it in several thin layers, resting it on its side to let gravity do the trick of leveling off the concave part of the wall. Once it was roughly level, I sanded the bowl chamber smoother and evened it off, then coated the entire chamber with the same mix. Looking into it now, you can't tell it was ever damaged, and I'm confident that the coating mix will endure any abuse I throw at it so I think it's salvaged as a smoker. Heck, it will probably still be a favorite just because I like the shape and feel of the thing, but it's disappointing that the material didn't hold up any better than that. I plan on returning it to the pipemaker and cussing about the quality of his work. :wink:

 

[cigrmaster]

Wow, thanks for the update. Very interesting that this type of Morta burns out so quickly. Do you think it could be the smoker hot boxing it like an amateur and not the pipe makers fault? :lol:

 

[thesmokindragon]

All I have to say is WOW! And if you think this one rocks,

try a google for LB Goblins, the claws in smooth and sandblast...

I need to get a set of those , perfect for a rage'in PAD beast,

the pipes are outstanding ladies/gents

 

[gwtwdbss]

(Newbie question - Is there a way to auto-quote specific messages here so I can reply to specific comments? I don't see anything like the usual forum 'Quote' buttons...)

Just hit the quote button that is located in the Reply box, paste the copied text, then hit the quote button again. It should look like this below(with quotation marks removed) before you hit the Send Post button:
"["quote"]"(Newbie question - Is there a way to auto-quote specific messages here so I can reply to specific comments? I don't see anything like the usual forum 'Quote' buttons...)[/quote]

 

[trevert]

How would that "test pipe" have fared had it been treated at least as good as, say, a $500 briar?
Only The Shadow knows for sure. But my take is ... a hell of a lot better.

Actually, I don't think there would have been much difference. Most pipes can take a fair amount of abuse just fine, and I need to know what to expect from a material before I try selling it, because the LAST thing you want to do is invest the labor in making the thing and then have to refund it all for a warranty problem. I've given any number of Breton mortas the same treatment and never had an issue with any of them. I'm inclined to lay the fault on the softness of this particular material, which was noticeable per my posts above. Especially given the particular nature of the damage, which was even and spread out, rather than concentrated via parched-earth-style cracking.
Stress testing is just part of the biz.

Do you think it could be the smoker hot boxing it like an amateur and not the pipe makers fault?

In my experience, it is *always* the pipemaker's fault, even when the pipe has been dropped from a second floor onto concrete.

 

[winterland]

Goblin pipes. Hmmm, will have to do a search

 

[gwtwdbss]

Goblin pipes. Hmmm, will have to do a search

WOW!
Goblins