A Question about Meerschaum

[Blue Max]

Javainseattle posted about his new Meerschaum, which is a beauty, and it got me wondering about something. Is it true you can't touch it with your fingers while you are smoking it because the oils will form fingerprints on the bowl over time? I remember someone telling me this a long, long time ago. I had a Meer but I didn't like holding it by the stem and I can't imagine any pipe smoker would.

 

[monbla256]

Javainseattle posted about his new Meerschaum, which is a beauty, and it got me wondering about something. Is it true you can't touch it with your fingers while you are smoking it because the oils will form fingerprints on the bowl over time? I remember someone telling me this a long, long time ago. I had a Meer but I didn't like holding it by the stem and I can't imagine any pipe smoker would.

You can touch it anywhere you want, but when it is warm while you are smoking it, your fingers WILL effect how it colors. It is a VERY pourus material and is coated with beeswax on the exterior and this with the heat and tars from the tobacco is what colors the pipe. The oil from your hands will counteract with the beeswax and will cause a blotchy sort of coloring so most of us just hold 'em at the shank/bit junction while smoking. It will become a habit while smoking this type of pipe and after awhile you don't even think about it! I have three meers that I've smoked this way for over 30 years now and they have colored beautifully and really, till you mentioned it in your question, I had not thought of HOW I hold 'em it had become such a habit Get one, just don't be in a hurry as it is a long term proposition unless it's your only pipe you smoke

 

[mike_68]

In my quest for a nice meer, I've read a bunch of different instructions on this. Now that I have a good one(I think anyway), I'm trying the "hold it by the shank/stem for the first 10 smokes" process. If it doesn't end up making any difference...oh well! I tried right?

 

[monbla256]

In my quest for a nice meer, I've read a bunch of different instructions on this. Now that I have a good one(I think anyway), I'm trying the "hold it by the shank/stem for the first 10 smokes" process. If it doesn't end up making any difference...oh well! I tried right?

It will take MORE than just 10 smokes to really begin to notice much color difference. Mine really did not start to color till I had been smoking 'em for about 5 to 8 years. Just a gradual tanning from all white but now after 30+ years, they are strating to get much darker and varied. I'm sure if I smoked 'em on a much more regular/frequent basis they would color faster but I'm in no hurry so I and they have taken their time !! Mine are the claw with egg shape which have now started to darken out at the ends of the claws. My grandson will get 'em and he can get a head start on his other pipe smoking buddies AAAAAH fantasy is nice

 

[Boulder]

Maint tips from the meerschaum king :king: ;


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[mark]

I don't get overly concerned about blotching and ruining the coloring process, I simply wash my hands well before smoking my meers.

I bought them to enjoy smoking and if I was required to hold each one a certain way to maintain the mystique of the perfectly colored meerschaum ,,,,,then they wouldn't smoked.

But that's just me,,,I hate rules, implied, traditional or recommended.

 

[williamcharles]

The two meers with black around the top don't count since they were pre-colored.
The half bent under the block meer at the left has been held any way I want to hold it since
I've had it and so has the small carved Sultan. The Peterson isn't doing much of anything since I rarely smoke it.
All this pic is for is so you can see the many ways meers will color no matter how you hold them. I bought them to smoke
and like one gent has already stated I don't really care how they color. Some say to wear a cotton glove. Yeah right. Cotton
absorbs warm wax if you get the pipe too hot. Your fingers will, or at least can blotch the wax like has already been stated.
Only thing I can tell you for sure is to not get too obsessed by it. Meer colors how meer wants to color.

 

[Blue Max]

Thanks for the responses. I'm in the camp with not usually abiding by any rules too, in all areas of my life. I think if they colored in months instead of years I might try the stem-holding but I'm too clumsy and forgetful. I'll probably get a meer in the future just because they smoke so well. Also because when I'm out with one people come up and want to fill it with a green substance. I tell them to get their own.

 

[Idlefellow]

One word: glove.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Six words and a smiley: Smoke your pipe how you want. 8)

(...as a side note, I respond quite bitingly to the comedians that act so proud of themselves, like they're the first people to ever make a marijuana-related comment to a guy with a tobacco pipe... I love being a killjoy... :twisted: ...)

 

[KevinM]

I have three Meers, two white CAO Meers in traditional pipe shapes (i.e., not carved), the other is a Barling African Meer which doesn't count, because when I bought it it was black already. I was given very derogatory comments about African Meers, but mine smokes very well, requires no pampering and has proven to be very rugged in the twelve or so years I've owned it. Just FWIW.

My CAOs illustrate the comment that Meers color/or not as they please. One is coloring, but seems to have a bathtub ring around the bowl. The other is a nice golden color, but mottled. Both have smudgey fingerprint marks at the base of the bowl where I hold them. I'm told I'm "smoking them wrong." That may well be true, and, if so, I'll continue to smoke them wrong.

I do heed the advice not to let cake build up inside a meer, and sometimes clean the inside with a damp bit of an old undershirt and a bit of Poland Spring. I'm told this aids coloring, but you can't prove that by me. I don't scrape the inside of the bowls with a pipe tool, which I'm told is very bad form.

I've been told meers color well if exposed to smoke. I've been told the meer owner has to recoat them with beeswax to protect them and enhance color. I do neither.

I finally decided to treat them like briars which means smoke 'em, keep 'em clean, try to figure out what type or brand of tobacco they seem to prefer. You know, just enjoy them and see what happens.

Life is too short to worry even for a minute about whether your pipe is the right color.

 

[lb]

The two meers with black around the top don't count since they were pre-colored.
The half bent under the block meer at the left has been held any way I want to hold it since
I've had it and so has the small carved Sultan. The Peterson isn't doing much of anything since I rarely smoke it.
All this pic is for is so you can see the many ways meers will color no matter how you hold them. I bought them to smoke
and like one gent has already stated I don't really care how they color. Some say to wear a cotton glove. Yeah right. Cotton
absorbs warm wax if you get the pipe too hot. Your fingers will, or at least can blotch the wax like has already been stated.
Only thing I can tell you for sure is to not get too obsessed by it. Meer colors how meer wants to color.

The half bent seems to be colored by artificial means.The bowl is much more darker than the shank.It would be very unusual a natural coloration like this.Did you colored it yourself?

 

[williamcharles]

The pipe was white when I bought it almost 29 years ago. For some reason the shank has just now begun to color. I was told that it was probably something to do with the wax on the shank and that I should re-wax the pipe. I did that and now the shank is coloring too. Maybe it's just a slow learner? :roll:

I was surprised that 1/2 bent colored at all. I picked that out of a basket on the counter in a drug store and paid $5 for it.

I've recently acquired another pipe and it's coloring shank first like they usually do.

Like I said before, meer colors like meer wants to color.

 

[Rusty]

I was given very derogatory comments about African Meers, but mine smokes very well, requires no pampering and has proven to be very rugged in the twelve or so years I've owned it. Just FWIW.

Yes. Yes!

African meers are very practical pipes. The challenge with Turkish meer is its fragility so we're a little reluctant to drag them around with us. But the hardened, and usually precoloured, African meers are much more resilient. Unfortunately the mines in the Amboseli region in N. Tanzania have closed and so has Laxey pipes on the Isle of Mann. So commercially they're gone except for estate and existing store stock. But for many years the Amboseli was an alternative source for meerschaum. Laxey made African meer pipe bowls under contract to the owners of most of the well known brands eg Peterson, Comoy, Barling etc.
http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Laxey_Pipes_Ltd.

The other source were the companies in Africa...
http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Kiko

They're quite serviceable and interestingly enough the diff in flavour between African Meer and Turkish is nonexistent. If there is any variation due to the material it's likely due to flavour from the stain on the African meer.

So when we compare them the principal advantage to the Turkish is lighter weight (often) and that they colour. But the fragility is a real issue. I think the practicality of the African meers means we really lost something of value when they went out of production. Mind you you will find them on eBay.

 

[pipeman1947]

If you are really worried about finger prints a white cotton glove as used in a photographers darkroom would do,but I have found that whatever I do scratches and dirt appear.To clean use cotton wool and water and dry with a fine cloth patting it dry.Do not soak it or use chemicals as this can affect the pipe.Some experts say that the natural oils on your fingers speed up the colouring,but I find that colouring varies from pipe to pipe.Everybody agrees that the only way to get the amber to ruby colouring is to smoke the pipe as much as possible.Pipeman1947 irate: irate:

 

[jefe1037]

But the hardened, and usually precoloured, African meers are much more resilient. Unfortunately the mines in the Amboseli region in N. Tanzania have closed and so has Laxey pipes on the Isle of Mann. So commercially they're gone except for estate and existing store stock. But for many years the Amboseli was an alternative source for meerschaum. Laxey made African meer pipe bowls under contract to the owners of most of the well known brands eg Peterson, Comoy, Barling etc.
http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Laxey_Pipes_Ltd.

The other source were the companies in Africa...
http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Kiko

They're quite serviceable and interestingly enough the diff in flavour between African Meer and Turkish is nonexistent. If there is any variation due to the material it's likely due to flavour from the stain on the African meer.

So when we compare them the principal advantage to the Turkish is lighter weight (often) and that they colour. But the fragility is a real issue. I think the practicality of the African meers means we really lost something of value when they went out of production. Mind you you will find them on eBay.

In case anyone is curious, you could probably buy the mines for about three weeks pay if anyone wants to be a land baron in Tanzania... the average income in the country is equivalent to about 500 bucks a year US.

 

[monbla256]

I think you'd find it would cost much more than you think The reason they only earn around $500.00/year is because "other" folks control the land and I would imagine it ain't cheap