ABOUT MY PIPES...

My pipes are mostly made of briar. Although I don't use other materials as much, there are several pipes made of bog oak (morta), olivewood, strawberry tree, or some other wood in my collection. Most of my pipes are smoothly finished with glossy shine from carnauba wax. I use all kinds of exotic materials for pipe decorations, mostly deer antlers, horns, boxwood, karelian birch, cocobolo, bocote or some other type of hardwood. Bamboo is also a great material, and I use it often, when pipe design allows such an intervention.

Briar, being a well known material, by its beauty and other features takes the first place among pipe making materials. The briar I use comes mostly from Italy, and then I also have a certain amount of blocks from Spain and a few blocks of Croatian briar, excavated from the Croatian islands. Croatian briar is much sweeter in taste than the other ones I work with.

Bog Oak (Morta) has become a popular material in pipe making in the last few years. Basically, Morta is fossilized wood, excavated from riverbeds or swamps where it has been lying for thousands of years. Here in Croatia we have a lot of sites where fossilized wood has been dug out. It has mostly been used for furniture and house furnishing. Morta pipes are beautifully black with interesting smoking capabilities and a great durability.

Olive is the other very important material that I use in pipe making. I have several olive pipes in my personal collection and I smoke them very often. Balkan mixtures together with Virginia tobaccos blend beautifully with olivewood, creating softer and milder smoke than having been smoked in briar, for example. The blocks of olivewood that I work with, come from Greece or Italy, and I have a certain amount of Croatian olivewood blocks, harvested in the coastal region of the Adriatic Sea.

50 year old pipes are a limited series, drilled and roughly shaped over 50 years ago in a famous Cellini pipe factory in Chicago. The Cellini brand was known as Victory Pipe Craftsmen Association (which was their corporative name). The Cellini pipes were sold exclusively in the shop in front of the Cellini factory. Cellini pipes were famous all over the world, and can still be bought nowadays on the estate market at fairly decent prices. Those pipes are also very valuable to collectors. Store and factory were closed in the late 80's, shortly after the death of their founder Elliot Silber, and what was left were thousands of half finished stummels in many various shapes. The small amount of those stummels ended up in my workshop.
So, I do final drillings and shaping, sanding, staining, polishing. I make stems for them and the final result is amazing! The wood is beautifully dry and almost light red in colour, and they smoke wonderfully sweet. It would be a real shame thet they go to waste, after all - they are a part of history!

Tampers are well known tools, used for tamping tobacco while smoking. Sometimes I make batch of tampers just for the fun of it, and sometimes they come as a gift with some of my pipes. Usually the pipe and the tamper are made of the same material (for example if the pipe is made of briar and has a ring made of a deer antler, then the tamper will also be made of briar and deer antler). I make them freehanded and each of them is a unique piece, just as my pipes are. They come in all possible combinations, sizes and styles. If a pipe has a tamper that goes with it, then it is customary in the photo together with the pipe.

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Briar
Smooth freehand

DOUBLE BOR GRADE PIPE

Smooth freehand with karelian birch, amazing grain and two stems

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Briar
Smooth freehand apple

BOR GRADE PIPE

Smooth freehand apple with amazing grain and plateaux bark bowl rim

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Morta
Sandblasted freehand apple

BOR GRADE PIPE

Sandblasted freehand apple

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Briar
Smooth freehand dublin

BOR GRADE PIPE

Smooth freehand dublin in unstained finish

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Morta
Sandblasted egg

BOR GRADE PIPE

Sandblasted egg with boxwood

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Briar
Short smooth egg

Short smooth crosscut egg

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Morta
Sandblasted bent dublin

Sandblasted bent dublin with boxwood

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Morta
Sandblasted dublin

Sandblasted dublin with skateboard board shank end ring

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Briar
Sandblasted dubling

Sandblasted dublin with smooth tobacco chamber rim and b&w ebony shank end

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Briar
Smooth crosscut egg

Smooth crosscut egg in orange contrast stain finish

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Briar
Smooth egg

Smooth crosscut egg

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Briar
Smooth billiard

Smooth unstained large billiard with saddle stem

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Morta
Sandblasted dublin

Sandblasted short dublin

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Briar
Sandblasted dublin

Sandblasted straight dublin with boxwood and wide tobbaco chamber

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Briar
Sandblasted nosewarmer

Sandblasted nosewarmer with black and white ebony shank end and wide tobbacco chamber

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Briar
Smooth broken egg

BOR GRADE PIPE

Smooth straight broken egg with killer grain

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Morta
Sandblasted dublin

Sandblasted dublin with multicolored saddle stem

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Briar
Sandbblasted tulip

Sandblasted tulip with smooth bowl rim and karelian birch shank end

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Morta
Sandblasted egg

Sandblasted egg with black&white ebony shank end and dark turquoise saddle stem

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Briar
Smooth dublin

Smooth dublin in nature finish with orange stem

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