Let's See Some Pics of Your Moretti's!

Brothers of Briar

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That's a beauty - congratulations!:cheers: :cheers: 

Either you have tiny hands or that is a monster pipe!:shock: 

Fraternally

Jers
 
I have small hands but it is a big pipe, 7 inchs long bowl is 2.5 inches tall . Had it rebored as Moretti believes in small diameter  bowl, Floyd Norwood bored it a little over 1 inch, fine smoker.
 
cajun":8dv7fhe3 said:
I have small hands but it is a big pipe, 7 inchs long bowl is 2.5 inches tall . Had it rebored as Moretti believes in small diameter  bowl, Floyd Norwood bored it a little over 1 inch, fine smoker.
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I have an Amphora freehand that is a champion smoke, but the bowl is very tall and narrow. I keep the cake in it really thin, and a dime (.705 in) is about the size of the original chamber diameter. The wall thickness is good and it could handle a larger bore without being too thin. I have wondered about having it rebored (or getting the fancy spade bit and trying to do it myself. How much was this?
 
Not much if I recall under 30$, the bad thing about a spade bit is you could knock a chunk out of the wall. Better to have someone chuck it up in a lathe and do a good job, Floyd did it and did not have any chuck marks or scratches . Made all the difference in the world on that pipe. So if you think you have sufficient wall thickness, go for it. Bradley
 
Hi Brothers,

Been away for a while, but I have been busy building my Moretti collection. I've added these three within the past 4 months. The little nose warmer on the top was my most recent. I actually contacted Marco directly to have this one made. I gave him my specifications and he responded quickly. Within a week he had it finished (sent me pictures) and it was on its way to Seattle. The middle pipe is my favorite -- beautiful straight grain with wonderful birdseye on the rim. Marco stamps the pipe's grade next to its date now. This one is his second highest grade -- I'll never afford his top grade pipes $$$$$$. The bottom is one of his Magnum's -- a little bigger than I usually like but I find myself smoking it often.

I feel like my experience with Moretti's have spoiled me for other pipes. Marco's craftsmanship is superb. I am now finding all sorts of flaws in my other pipes (e.g., gaps between the stem and the shank, loose stems, not passing pipe cleaners) that are simply not there in my Moretti's. To top it off, Marco is an absolute gentleman and fantastic person to work with.

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I really like that center one, nice grain and shape.  :D 
 
This 11+" Moretti is one of the giant Canadians I bought from Tony Soderman's prodigious collection.  It is not one of the ones that Moretti rejected but which were later sold by some guy who bought up Moretti's rejects en masse and then sold them in the US some years ago as "Morettis," thus undermining Moretti's justly deserved reputation for making great pipes.  I have not smoked it yet, as I spread out break ins over time in deference to my tongue.  Also, I am wondering if I should send it out to some pipe carver/repairer to enlarge the chamber.  As you can see in the second picture, the chamber seems disproportionately small in relation to the squarish bowl.  I know that thick bowl walls are considered to be a virtue, but this one seems to be carrying a good thing a little far.  Anyone have any thoughts on whether the chamber should be bored out a bit by someone like Tim West, Frank Storm, or . . . ?  I noted Cajun's comments about having Floyd Norwood bore out that monster pipe of his; maybe he's the one to send it to?  I've never considered doing this before, so I'm kind of in terra incognita here.

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P.S., Sorry about the crude computer cam pictures, but I'm not set up to take the beautiful pictures the rest of you guys have one here. Your pipes look really great. I'm kind of doing Signore Moretti a disservice with these quickie pics.
 
ExcessEnergy":h9a51dbv said:
 It is not one of the ones that Moretti rejected but which were later sold by some guy who bought up Moretti's rejects en masse and then sold them in the US some years ago as "Morettis," thus undermining Moretti's justly deserved reputation for making great pipes.
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I wasn't aware of this, EE. Where did you hear about this? Where (are) they being sold?

As for your re-boring question, I like how Marco drops a normal sized bowl in a large block of briar. I never smoke full bowls, so I would never alter a pipe to make one bigger.
 
Avid, prize-winning collector Tony Soderman of Minneapolis, who has sold me a number of pipes, including this one, knows Moretti well.  He's the one who wrote to me about it, but I do not recall him specifying a timeframe or a region. When Moretti sold the rejected pipes, he did not expect the fellow to sell them in the United States with Moretti's name on them, of course. It was an under-handed thing to do to Moretti. I will check to see if I can find what Soderman wrote about this and put it on here.  I think it was some time ago, as I recall Soderman writing that Moretti prices were finally recovering from the effects of what that fellow did.
 
Pipen' Prof,

In response to your question, here is what Tony Soderman, prize-winning pipe collector and the former owner of the war club shown in the pictures, above wrote about Morettis, which he greatly admires:

"Morettis are FLAWLESS PIPES with NO HIDDEN FILLS!!!

"Unfortunately, Marco once sold his 'discarded pipes' to an American pipe seller who gladly liquidated them on eBay. The result was two-fold. First, hundreds of flawed Morettis found their way into the hands of pipe smokers who recognized the defects and incorrectly concluded that all Moretti pipes were poor quality, flawed pipes. Second, the sales prices became so depressed that many Morettis sold for token prices furthering the misconception that all Morettis were poor quality pipes and not worth much money! Sadly, the brand name has suffered as a result!"

I did not know about this, either, and have often admired the Morettis for sale at my local Tinder Box in Costa Mesa.  Of course, those pipes, like the war club and the ones all of you on here own and enjoy, are the real Morettis, not the ones that were passed off as Carlo's best work on eBay several years ago.

Tony's admiration extends to owning a lot of Morettis, including some enormous Canadians that dwarf the war club that I bought from him.  He has a pretty close relationship with Carlo and also Bruto Sordini (Don Carlos pipes).  He represented the latter as his attorney in the US.  I am not sure if he represented Carlo, but I know that he spent a lot of time with him at pipe shows, and had a role in persuading Carlo to come to the US to make his pipes more familiar to American pipe enthusiasts in earlier years.
 
Added a new one today, brothers. It's my third of this shape. This one, however, is considerably more stout (4.5" long). It's not quite a magnum but its bowl is about 1/4" greater in diameter than my others. I introduced it to Navy Flake today. I think they're going to be good friends  :D 
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Very nice indeed! That's a pudgy little puppy aint it, I bet it feels real good in the hand.
 
That's a great one, too. Most of the ones I've seen on eBay since you fellows brought these to my attention have not been up to the aesthetic standard of the ones you fellows seem to find. I'll just have to keep a lookout. Nice pipe!
 
Cartaphilus":5win9ii1 said:
Very nice indeed! That's a pudgy little puppy aint it, I bet it feels real good in the hand.
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That's why this is the third of this shape I have purchased from Marco; it just feels perfect in the hand, and the thick walls keep the bowl nice and cool.
 
Some fellow on eBay outbid me on one of Tony Soderman's giant Morettis.  So, Tony sends it to the guy.  Now, Tony's eBay ad, like all of his ads, has an elaborate discussion of Moretti pipes in general, and this war club in particular, and he has a large picture with a ruler at the bottom, showing prospective purchasers just how long the thing is.  Now, it's not quite as long as the one in the picture above, but it's still 10.25" long.  The picture looks like this:


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So, the guy has an elaborate written description and he's got this picture, and he bids the dickens out of it so that I finally let him have it at $455 because I cannot believe that I even went anywhere near that high.  Bear in mind, now, that Tony often just sells me the pipes he has that I want without putting them on eBay, which means that I pay less.  But this one went way over Tony's reserve.  The guy gets it, writes to Tony and tells him he wants to return it because . . . wait for it . . . it's too long.  As Tony said when he wrote to me afterwards, "it looks like the luck is with you."  :cheers:  But I'm not paying quite  what that fellow bid.  :cheers:  :cheers:  :cheers:   I wonder what part of 10.25" he didn't understand? :lol: 
 
The .25 . Decimals are SO HARD ya know !! AND his ruler was only marked in 1/8ths  :twisted: :twisted: 
 
I would imagine the nimrod woke up and said to himself and or his wife "Holy cow, I paid what for this?" and wanted out of the deal. I see so many nimrods out there bidding like it's a war or there life there bidding on jacking prices up to way over stupid money. This one just came to his senses too late but, was able to back out of it.
Nice pipe by the way, although I don't know if I could see the bowl to light it being almost a foot away from my nose.  ;) 
 
ExcessEnergy":13ew7z0w said:
 The guy gets it, writes to Tony and tells him he wants to return it because . . . wait for it . . . it's too long.  
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I'm not sure I would have returned it. There's a flippin' ruler in the picture!  :scratch: 
 
I'd have refunded him the purchase price less shipping and a 20% restocking fee. That'd be $91 profit for having to deal with an idiot!
 
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