Talbert Pipes- Five new Morta Collectors

[Trever Talbert]

Hello all!

The return of the morta pipes! I've just written in detail about how
these came to be in a blog post here:

http://talbertpipes.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-ligne-bretagne-morta-collector.html

I had loads of fun making the recent Ligne Bretagne Dukes and Dons. I
loved the look and it was something different. In the process, I was
reminded that I had a bag of morta blocks left from Brittany that
would be ideal for this style of pipe. Et voila, the first new Morta
Collector in Don form (Back in Brittany, we made a number of these
very similar to this that we dubbed "Top Hats").

There were a number of challenging considerations in making these.
Cost was the biggest - They were all going to have to be Collectors,
being handmade, which would put them in the odd position of competing
with their own brand. From a quick glance, they look a lot like the
recent Ligne Bretagne Dukes and Dons, but under the surface, the
differences in cost are vast. The standard Ligne Bretagnes are
finished from partially pre-machined stummels, ready to be worked. The
morta, by contrast, had to be dug up from the Briere park, sawn apart,
cut into blocks and carefully dried over 3-5 years before it could
even be used. Then, each bowl needed to be drilled and shaped by hand,
eating their way through my tools in the process since Breton Morta is
hellishly hard stuff (Every morta bowl you see represents one drill
bit sharpening and several replaced sanding discs and drums, it's
ridiculous).

Will they sell? I have no idea. But it's an intriguing experiment - If
they do sell and prove popular, I can make more until that last box of
morta is gone. This would make me happy, as I would much rather turn
that stock into pipes than write it off and cut it all up for bands,
shank extensions, and tamper pieces. But, if there isn't any market
for these at the price point they need to be to be worth making, I'll
very happily keep these for my own collection and turn back to other
work.  For sentimentality alone, I'd be very pleased to keep some of
these since to me they're not just pipes, they're symbolic of our
whole international adventure and are the existing foundations of the
popularity of morta pipes in today's collector market. In a nutshell,
they're a piece of pipe history.

Voila les pipes:

http://www.talbertpipes.pair.com/bretagne.shtml




And if you read all of that above, thank you for your patience as well
as your time and support!
Happy Smoking,
Trever Talbert
www.talbertpipes.com