The Ligne Bretagne Morta Collector

Two blog posts in two weeks!  Will wonders never cease...  But I had two things worth saying, a rare event in itself.  I'm back this time to introduce (or re-introduce) the Ligne Bretagne Morta Collector:

I had a great time working on all those Ligne Bretagne Dukes and Dons recently.  It's a fun shape, very elegant and stylish, and offering a lot of creative freedom in the final renditions, and I got to thinking...  We don't have a lot of morta left from Brittany, and I recalled that we had a bag of small blocks that was actually labeled "Probably too small for pipes".  I went digging through our stock for this and voila, it was just as I remembered:

Too small for pipes with traditional shanks, yes, but...  a lot of these are perfect for Dukes, Dons, and other "no shank" variations.  Turning these last smaller blocks into pipes would be a productive way to finish them out, and preferable to the previous option of just cutting them up as decorative rings, tamper parts, etc.  And when I say "these last", I mean it - In the photo above, you're looking at the last of my smaller blocks of Breton morta stock.  I've got some bigger ones set aside for higher-end pipes, but what you see above is it for the small ones.  When it's gone, it's gone, and with no other pipemakers likely to ever set up shop in the Briére, this is almost certainly the last Breton morta in the world.

What's different about it?  I've worked with morta from a few other suppliers.  Thus far in my experience, the Breton morta is denser, harder, and heavier.  It's very rough on workshop equipment, and just sanding it is prone to wear out sanding discs and drums almost immediately.  It also possesses, in my opinion, a richer, darker, earthier flavor than other mortas that I've worked with.  It's positively made for latakia, and excels with any really strong and dark tobacco, offering a flavor that is quite literally like nothing else.

So, this will be the next site update!  We're working on the first several of these now.  I plan to work our way through that box you see above until they're all turned into pipes, or at least all the blocks that are usable as pipes.  This is pretty much the definition of "Limited Edition"!

Frenzy

Note - Of the pipes previewed in this post, both Ligne Bretagnes are now sold, and so is the morta poker. The two remaining mortas will be posted on our website catalog in a day or two.

Quiet time on the Talbert Pipes website and blog does not equal relaxation time for us. Unfortunately. It seems like a very long time since I last had the chance to update the site or blogs, but the workshop has been humming. It's odd, too, given the global recession this year, that our sales should be improving. It almost seems that we've run about six months to a year ahead of the news media-induced "state of the economy" - That is to say, we first noticed an inexplicable drop-off in business in the Fall of 2007, long before news channels were squawking about the economic disaster round the clock, and the sluggish sales continued through a good chunk of 2008. Now that the media has finally realized there is a business crisis on hand, our business has picked back up a good bit. This is not to say that we're in any danger of becoming wealthy any time soon, but at least we can afford to buy food now, which is a great improvement!

The three morta pipes above were all just finished recently, but I haven't had time to post them to the catalog yet. I'm actually trying to decide what to do with them, whether to sell them direct or send them to a dealer, as we have a couple of dealers with orders in-house now. If anyone wants one, feel free to email me for info - prices are as always, 209 € for the sandblast or 229 € ea for the smooths, plus VAT and shipping if applicable. I'm particularly fond of the "fat prince" in the middle - It has an extra-thick bowl shape that is very broad and round, with a beveled rim instead of a flat one. The sandblast poker was done for an order and may or may not be sold, I haven't heard back yet.

In other news, I finished the two Ligne Bretagne billiards that were treated with the process I described in a previous post. Both came out smooth, and quite nice:






Again, here are two pipes that I have not yet decided what to do with. I'd rather sell them direct than send them to a dealer, because I want to be able to get direct feedback on their smoking quality due to their special treatment, but I just haven't had the spare time to stick the pics together and post them as catalog entries. If anyone is interested in either of them (The first two pics are of the "gold root" one with a strong grain contrast stain, and the third pic is of the other pipe, in red-orange with a marbled white stem accent band), just let me know. Despite a greater amount of labor time going into them, these treated pipes are the same price as normal Ligne Bretagnes for now - 123 € each, plus VAT and shipping as needed. Note that I have yet to develop a cutesy marketing phrase for this process, nor any special marking, so for the time being they are indistinguishable from normal LBs.