I live in Croatia. I have been a pipemaker for over twenty years and a pipe smoker for the last thirty-five years. A few years ago I got to know my present companion, Darko, top master carpenter, who for some time now has been collecting and processing semi-petrified oak wood (abonos, bog-aok, Mooreiche, morta). As a result of our collaboration, we make pipes of this material also. As expected, like any hobby pipemaker, I began working in briar, mostly from the Adriatic coast, I followed working in olive wood, and now, mostly in morta (in pipe smoker’s world this type of material is commonly termed morta).
Croatia, my country is rich in natural resources of all the materials from which pipes are made, these days briar, olive-wood, back in history it was one of the largest manufacturers of clay pipes. So in Croatia top briar, olive-wood, and various sorts (colors) of morta, including “golden”, “copper”, and black, can be found.
Unfortunately, these days the tradition of pipe smoking in the world has been reduced to a smaller number of enthusiasts everywhere. We regularly meet in our Society & Club in Zagreb. I am also president of Association of Pipesmokers “Lula” (Pipe). And just to mention, in a “real” life I am a manager in a foreign company’s branch in Croatia.
My pieces are signed by the letter “D” stylized from the old Slavic Glagolitic script – Glagoljica, impressed with a hot stamp. Glagoljica is an Old Slavic alphabet created by the mid 9th century, which remained in use in Croatia until the 19th century. The tradition holds that the script was invented by St Cyril (real name of Constantin), a Byzantine monk from Solun (Thessaloniki)
In this way I wanted to create a symbolical connection between old material, morta, and the oldest script of the Slavic peoples.
What is abonos – morta?
The soils that are mostly wet, sandy, gravel – and clay-like, deep and fertile usually found above high underground waters are the most suitable habitats for the growth of oak forest (quercus robur). The largest oak forests thrive best on lowland and slight upland soils of the diluvial geological era, the vallies of river basins being especially suitable sites for this type of oak.
Variations in the water level, floads, marshes formation – all are conditions that in a very special way promote the growth of this particular tree. Because of a continous change of the direction of the river flow on a greater or lesser degree, the mainstreams weave through the vallies constantly forming live meanders. In its meandering course, the river undermines the banks covered with forests, the trees fall in to the river and get drifted away in the water. When the trunk gets trapped by its branches and roots to the river bed, in time it becomes covered with the layers of mud, sand and gravel. Deprived of oxygen the wood undergoes the process of fossilization and a long process of abonos formation (or Croatian “Crni dub”, English bog-oak, German Mooreiche, in the world of the pipesmokers known as “Morta”).
During hundreds to thousands of years, under the influence of the minerals and iron in the water, the decomposition of oak timber is slowed. In the formation of abonos a special role is played by the currents of the underground waters, providing solution of the ingredients which make compounds with larger quantities of tanin from the wood and in this way induce darkening of the wood colour. The centuries-long process of timber change, “maturation” results in colour alteration from golden-brown to completely black, and its hardness is increased to such a level that later it can only be carved with the use of specially grind and exceptionally hard tools.
The time necessary for the oak to transform from the end of its biological growth to abonos is various. Based on the conditions under which “maturation” takes place, the process can take two, three, or seven thousands years. Due to the process, above no two trunks, will be the same color, each is unique.
Sites of abonos wood in the world are very rare. In the sites likely to harbour it, (Croatia mainly in the valley of the river Sava & its branches, abonos is hard to find. Access to the river bank and its bed is usually difficult. Each attempt to locate and recoveryabonos, is usually unsuccessful. Therefore, excessive
Every time there is a lot of preparation needed. Then finding of a number of professional divers, skilled in working in murky dark river waters and darkness. Abonos is found in the entire dark and the retrieval pulling out of the water is the first time hits of it after thousands of years. The age of abonos found in Croatian rivers ranges from several hundred years in the rivers to the south and the oldest retrieved, to date, (river Krapina) is 8290 years old. Saving the quality wood as the material for potential further processing is a very delicate matter.
Aesthetic effect of abonos is based on the very experience of naturally formed colour, noticeable wood structure, its “imperfect” appearance, and the fact that parts of the wood are combined which by their variation in the colour, directions of growth rings, or certain “damage” convey a strong aesthetic and ethical message about the immensity of the past times. The dating of the "abonos" time is grounded on carbon dating of the morta wood. The miracle of its intactness indicates that wood is not affected weather conditions or vermin often spoil the looks and strength of briar wood.
Semidry abonos wood is exceptionally hard, sometimes of the golden or copper colour, or with a tint of some other hue. Older wood can be completely black. This colour is particularly specific so every connoisseur of materials is able to notice the profound permeation of the wood structure by its darkness & coloration. The black color of “live” briar wood is different from that of black fossil (morta) or coal.
Abonos – morta and pipemaking
Abonos – morta is a very specific material. The trunk (or root) of oak which lay under the ground for thousands of years, having been washed by the river water and precipitated with mineral is an ideal material for pipes. Percentage of minerals is considerable, reaching up to 12%, which makes abonos especially resistant to burning, and thousand-year- long washing erased all traces of tannine, resin and similar ingredients, giving a completely neutral taste during tobacco smoking. To tell the truth, this is no material for beginners. Abonos is hard to carve, some parts can be supple while others extremely hard, the percentage of hidden flaws in material is huge, which all may cause the pipe during its final production stages to crack, and dozen of hours of work to be in vain. On the other hand, finalized piece is beautiful, the structure of wood can be strikingly stunning – unique, and pipe smoking is a special pleasure. Tobacco when smoked yields neutral taste, positively neutral, of course.
Today there is a relatively small number of pipemakers who make pipes of morta; to purchase quality material is much too complicated, the processing of material is difficult with a relatively high portion of discard.