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I've searched here and elsewhere and came up with nothing. I'm working with my first block of morta. It is more of a grey color not rich black. I was told when I oil it that it will darken up. Oil it? In my reading on morta I've never heard any mention of this. Anybody mind helping me out here? I would greatly appreciate it. It will be blasted, should I do a coat of thinned shellac like briar or something else? Just to be clear, I'm not that concerned with a rich black look, although I would like that. I'm just trying to do what's best. The blasted morta pipes I've seen usually have a nice sheen to them and the area I did a test blast on is very dull, so.... Thanks so much.

I do several very thin coats of shellac then wax. Then dig the bits of wheel lint out of the cracks. Try to buff the grain in a direction that it doesnt grab too much lint, but it will anyway.

I've tried renaissance wax, oils, shellac, and carnauba wax on morta. Oils are the only way I've found that help darken the color. There are plenty of different oils to try and each one will give you a different result. The other variable is how deep your blast is. My blasts in morta are so deep that a buffing wheel with wax just makes the stummel look like a ball of yarn.

Black dye mixed in pecan(utility )oil will darken it well, then mix black stain into shellac, buff when dry 4 to 6 hrs. for the utility oil.I will usually use a shoe brush to get rid of the lint or set fire to it!

Thank you guys for your responses. I think they will get me headed in the right direction. I just need to decide which oil to try.

I don't like oil finishes, take too long to dry and even then they are prone to weeping.

Shellac to seal the surface followed by renaissance wax.

I've got some excess I cut off of the block. I may cut it into 2 or 3 pieces, blast and try a couple of different things to see what works out best.

I'm definitely still open to other experiences and opinions.

I went with the thinned shellac/black stain then hit with a clean wheel when it was dry. It worked good. Thanks again for the advice.

Won't the black stain come off if it's mixed into the finish?

Well it's alcohol based stain and my thinned shellac is mostly alcohol so it seems most of the color is not on the surface. I'm not selling this one, but rather testing it well to make sure I'm happy with it. Maybe I should go over it again with my regular thinned shellac, no stain. Thoughts?

This isn't much different than using thinned shellac over briar that's been stained. Whenever I do that, it always breaks the stain down some and I can see the stain color on my brush. I'm glad you brought it up, you're making me think.

I would definitely test it. Customers complain if they get stain on their hands while smoking a pipe. I try to make sure there isn't any stain coming off before I put the finish coat on, whether it's shellac or wax. I figure if it's not coming off before the finish, it won't come off after the finish.

Personally, I prefer the natural colour of morta. This to me looks kind of "fake", if that makes sense.

Charl wrote:Personally, I prefer the natural colour of morta. This to me looks kind of "fake", if that makes sense.

I can see that, but you're still finishing with oil or thinned shellac of some sort right?

Charl wrote:Personally, I prefer the natural colour of morta. This to me looks kind of "fake", if that makes sense.

Natural colour on 95% of my morta is jet black so it's easy for me