Meerschaums and advice on them

[Carl]

Guys,

I have a full bent Meer that looks a lot, shapewise, like a Sav 626, and I've owned it since the mid 90s. I don't smoke it that often, largely because I'm afraid of breaking it. In looking at pics of your pipes, I wonder how you go about coloring them and generally caring for them. Mine smokes well, and I have nothing against it. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Carl

 

[WarneOut]

Meerschaum pipes are relatively fragile, but they're more durable then their reputation would make you think.
As long as you aren't dropping them onto concrete, you should be alright.

For coloring, really just smoke it. Some people will say you need to periodically wax it, some people say smoke it for 2 weeks then rest it for a month and repeat. There's nothing wrong with doing any of those things, but they aren't necessary to worry about. Just smoke it as much as possible.

For general care, unlike briars, you don't want to build up a cake. I wipe out the bowl with a wet paper towel after every few bowls. That's pretty much all there is to it.

 

[Carl]

WarneOut,

Thanks for the tips. I smoked that pipe for a couple of bowls tonight and enjoyed it a lot. It is beginning to color around the bottom of the acrylic mouth piece, so there is hope on that front.

I doubt that the pipe is all that special, and I didn't describe it too well. I would call it a bent billiard with octagonal panels on the bowl, and a bowl crown that is convex in shape. There are no markings on the body or stem, and the case has none either. Any idea where it was made?

Carl

 

[Charley Scanlan]

I love meerschaum, they were my primary smokers for a long time, I've only had one crack in the shank and that one had very thin walls. I even stopped using the cases, just have them in a rack like other pipes. I like them best for the coloring and for the fact that you don't have to rest them like briar. Not to mention the ornamentation.

 

[ftrplt]

WarneOut,

Thanks for the tips. I smoked that pipe for a couple of bowls tonight and enjoyed it a lot. It is beginning to color around the bottom of the acrylic mouth piece, so there is hope on that front.

I doubt that the pipe is all that special, and I didn't describe it too well. I would call it a bent billiard with octagonal panels on the bowl, and a bowl crown that is convex in shape. There are no markings on the body or stem, and the case has none either. Any idea where it was made?

Carl

With no other info to evaluate, Turkey would be a safe bet!!!! FTRPLT

 

[Haebar]

I used to think meerschaums were fragile too, until my girlfriend accidently dropped my meerschaum calabash on a concrete floor at the 2019 Muletown Pipe Show as she was showing it to a customer and it wasn't even scratched! About coloring your meerschaums, there are no shortcuts - you just have to smoke them frequently. Genuine block meerschaum pipes will color much faster than pressed meerschaum. One way to tell if your pipe is block meerschaum is by its weight. Pressed meerschaums are heavier than block meerschaums; a block meerschaum will feel light in the hand compared to a comparably sized pressed meerschaum. Block meerschaum smokes cooler too.

 

[sobx]

I buy old meers anywhere I can find them and restore them. They're cheaper that way, LOL.

YES, waxing them will bring out richer color. Especially in an old pipe that has been neglected. Every single pipe I have found in a shop that has been neglected and "dried out" is usually brown, after a waxing (or two) will come out in deep reds, blacks, and leather browns. I bought a claw at a thrift shop a few years ago that was dry as bone, smoked and abused, and was dull gray on the outside. The nylon tenon was busted so the old guy sold it to me as "broken" but I knew nylon tenons are replaceable. I brought it home, replaced the nylon tenon, cleaned it with 90% alcohol, and waxed it. It turned the richest brown and blood red I have ever seen. I took it back to the shop a few days later and showed the guy. He thought it was a different pipe at first. From then on he calls me to wax every meer he has before it goes into his showcase because he can sell them for more money. I think he felt lilke he jipped himself at the price he sold it to me for. All that color was in the stone and no one had provided any solvent to move the color to the outside of the bowl for years.

I've spoken to and asked advice of many Turkish carvers I friend on Farcebook over the years because, as you already know, everyone on the Internet has an opinion and they're all different. Meerschaum is a porous stone. Beeswax is a solvent in this case. Without a solvent to move the tars through the porous stone, it simply can't color properly and usually ends up a dull brown. Yes, meers "dry out" over time (years not weeks). A meer can be beautifully colored, and over the years, as the wax evaporates, the color will in fact turn back to a dull brown as the solvent (wax) migrates back into the stone. Meer coloring isn't permanent, it can receed over time.

I've done quite a few experiments on meers that I bought or given that were just too busted up to fix. Tests that I didn't care if it ruined the pipe or not as it was no longer a pipe (hint, never soak a meer in water then try to turn it on a lathe even at slow speed to recarve it. LOL I think I scraped meer off the walls and ceiling for weeks after that "test".
Of the thirty meers in my collection, I wax them about all once a year. Some I've waxed once a week and smoked three bowls a day trying to get them to color fast, and they will color faster, but not instantly. It takes time and patience.

Fragile? I suppose. But I had a buddies meer that he wanted me to wax for him on my waxer I built. I had the bowl removed from the stem, had plugged the holes, and like a dummy left it wrapped in a soft towel I use for polishing while I was working on it. Lesson, never to that. No matter how good your memory is. Later on that day I needed a cloth and forgetting the pipe was in the cloth I grabbed it off the work bench. My heart stopped as the bowl fell down down down down. Seemed like to me all happened in slow motion. It hit the garage cement floor and rolled across the floor. At that moment I knew I had just bought my buddy a new pipe...but no. Not even a ding on it. GOOD meers are more durable than people give them credit for. It's all in the quality of the stone. Cheap pipe, cheap stone. You get what you pay for when it comes to meer stone. A few years ago I bought a cheap meer from a well known online dealer. First smoke about 1/4 way thru I heard a "pop". I took it out of my mouth and looked at it and a crack went about 3/4 way around the bowl. I wasn't smoking it hot or anything, just a normal smoke. The dealer replaced it no questions. She did comment on the phone, "We need to get you a better grade of pipe" and I don't think that was just a sales pitch. A $50 meer new is, well, a $50 meer.
I've had people telling me I didn't know what I was talking about, but when the guy in Turkey who carves meer for a living tells me his beliefs on wax and coloring, I tend to believe him.
I had a video of my waxing process but over the computer upgrades and disk failures have lost it. I built a "holder" shaped like an upside down |_| with about a 6 inch hole in the top where a pyrex bowl sits. My heat gun goes underneath and I melt the wax. The bowl is removed from the stem prior and the bowl plugged pluged so wax doesn't get inside the bowl. Believe me, if wax gets inside the bowl it will taste like a burning innertube. Beeswax wasn't meant to be smoked. I designed a holder with a handle on it that the male end of the tenon goes into the shank so I can hold the bowl while applying the wax, and so no wax can enter thru the stem hole. I warm the meer over the heat gun, then apply the wax on with a disposable brush (I get a 6 pack at Hobby Lobby for a few bucks). i apply the wax good and thick. Everywhere. Then let it cool. After it cools, I warm the meer again until the wax is melted, then I wipe if off with shop rags (the blue ones "Hardly Freight" sells on a big roll. You could probably use household paper towels with just as good results.) If it's not a smooth meer, you will still have wax in the grooves and nooks and crannies. If you leave that it'll melt when you smoke it and turn sticky. So I warm the pipe with the heat gun on low setting and use a toothbrush to get the wax out of the nooks and crannies. I buy the toothbrushes at the flea mall for 50 cents each. They can be used over and over if you take care not to get them too hot and melt the bristles, keeping the excess wax wiped off the bowl with the shop cloth while doing this until all the wax it out of the tiny spaces. Then I let it cool. A few hours later I come back with the micro-fiber cloths that I get in the 5-pack at Hardly Freight, and polish it. They always come to a nice gloss. Depending on how dry the pipe is, I've sometimes had to do this twice to get the color to return to rich color VS the dry dull colors. But it is always an improvement.
This Navy submariners pipe was new milky white when I bought it. I smoked it several times daily and waxed it every couple weeks for about 6 months. It looks awesome for those that like colored meers. Naturally, the darkest colors migrate towards the hotter parts first due to capillary action of the solvent, but it will eventually color all over.

NEW:


First wax:



Progressing over time to where the bottom of the bowl is nearly black




Here is my wax station. I lost the video. When I got this claw it was dull brown and dry. It was in BAD shape. The pig who owned it previously obviously never cared for it. The cake on the inside of the bowl was so thick that I couldn't insert a pencil inside the bowl, much less tobacco. I had to cut the cake out with the sanding drum on my dremel until I got close to the sides, then continue with fine sandpaper glued onto a dowel until i could see the meer beginning to show. After I waxed it a couple times the shank came out from the dull dry "cardboard brown" to a rich brown with an almost red hue to it.


BEFORE:



AFTER WAX:

I'm not claiming the way I do it is the best way. Turkish carvers usually dip their meers into a pot of wax. My method has worked well for me. I just didnt see the need to melt a whole potful of wax every time for one-at-a-timing them.
Hope you find something useful in my post if you decide to wax your meers.

 

[sobx]

With no other info to evaluate, Turkey would be a safe bet!!!! FTRPLT

True, but, keep in mind, there's meers made for tourists sold at Suluhan Carsisi Market, then there's meers made for gentlemen sold at finer stores. They all have the "Made in Turkey ~ block meerschaum" foil sticker in the case. LOL
Same way with coo-coo clocks. There's coo-coo clocks made for tourists in Bavaria (think made in China) then there's coo-coo clocks made in Bavaria for people who want a quality Black Forrest coo-coo clock. The prices vary considerably. I learned the coo-coo clock lesson while stationed in Germany (the expensive way). I had a "refresher course" in Saudi Arabia with a "silk" embroidered jacket. LOL

RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!

 

[sobx]

WarneOut,

Thanks for the tips. I smoked that pipe for a couple of bowls tonight and enjoyed it a lot. It is beginning to color around the bottom of the acrylic mouth piece, so there is hope on that front.

I doubt that the pipe is all that special, and I didn't describe it too well. I would call it a bent billiard with octagonal panels on the bowl, and a bowl crown that is convex in shape. There are no markings on the body or stem, and the case has none either. Any idea where it was made?

Carl

Post a photo. It's very difficult to tell age by the stone. The stem sometimes offers a clue. Is the stem horn, bakelite, vulcanite, or acrylic? And that's often misleading as over years, vulcanite tends to sour and develop a harsh "chemical" taste to it, due to oxidation, and because vulcanite is porous and absorbs organic acids from the smokers saliva, so they were periodically replaced. If there are no markings on the pipe, it usually suggests it ls either very old or a very new budget pipe, often carved by an apprentice learning the trade who hasn't gotten "important enough" to sign his work. Turkish Carvers didn't start "signing" their pipes unti the mid 70's. I believe Bekler was the first to begin doing that in 1974 when he began carving for SMS. Ozel was the second. He signed his pipes "The Artist" and so then everybody started doing it. Up until then, there weren't "knockoffs" made from pressed meer so there was no need for a carver to sign his pipes. A trained eye will usually recognize a master carvers technique. After the market became flooded with pressed meer knock-offs, carvers began to sign their work.

Now if it's an apprentice pipe that doesn't mean it's a bad pipe, it just isn't a pipe a collector would put a premium on as it doesn't have a pedigree. When I started collecting meer years ago I bought a lot of apprentice pipes as they were inexpensive and pretty. Most of them smoke just fine and are a pleasure to enjoy. But nowadays I don't buy anything not signed as they're usually over priced (think "Grandpa said this pipe was meerschaum and it's worth $1200"...well kid, grandpa was pulling your leg.)

I have a claw from the 1950's with case and a bakelite stem. It's unsigned but it's an awesome pipe, but no markings.
If you want to check for pressed meer VS block meer, remove the stem and use a silver dime (an old REAL silver dime, not a new dime) or other sterling item and try to make a mark on it there where the stem buts up to the shank where no one would notice. Silver won't mark block meer but it will leave a mark that looks like a pencil mark on pressed meer. I always wear a sterling ring especially when I pipe shop the antique shops. I've found a few pressed meers that the shop owners thought were made of gold judging by the price because they were "meerschaum pipes". .999 silver marks the adhesive used to hold the pressed meer powder together.

I like to know the pedigree of my pipes just for the nerdiness of knowing, but the general rule is if it smokes good and you like it, and you're not buying it from a collectors valuation standpoint, who really cares. Don't let a "pipe snob" get you down.

 

[Charley Scanlan]

Oh boy, I'd like to try waxing meers, that seems very worthwhile. Thank you for your knowledge and pictures!

 

[sobx]

Oh boy, I'd like to try waxing meers, that seems very worthwhile. Thank you for your knowledge and pictures!

I buy the bag of beeswax pellets at Michaels craft store. There's the bleached (white) beeswax and there's the natural (yellow) beeswax. I've always used the natural but I don't know if there's any significant difference. The purpose is to provide a solvent to migrate the color, so there is probably no difference in that aspect. My reasoning was if it has been bleached, it's been altered somehow and I'm pretty sure 150 years ago Turkish carvers didn't have bleached beeswax.

I'm told by some of my Turkish carver FB pals that many carvers use a blend of beeswax and oils, but they wont give up their "secret" recipe. They all claim their particular blend of wax/oils is the best. I wouldn't think it'd be any type of animal fat oil as that would turn rancid over time.

Another point worth mentioning is that when I warm the meer to apply the wax, I have my heat gun on a medium-low setting (your heat gun may vary). I try to keep the pipe at the temperature that the wax stays liquid on the pipe until I let it cool, not get the meer too hot. Then when I remove the wax I heat it up again, just past the point where the wax turns to liquid on the pipe. I don't think you could hurt the stone by getting it too hot, but my concern is stress fractures from heating/cooling it too fast.