Kyle Weiss
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2011
- Messages
- 11,988
- Reaction score
- 7
Remember this guy? I bought it almost a year ago.
https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t15517-they-re-just-meer-questions?highlight=meer
I lit it up for the first time tonight. Everything was great, until about thirty minutes in. Clenching lightly, puffin' away on some SOTE flake, and something like a .22 shot resonated through my skull. "Oh," I thought, "...that better not be what I thought it was." I kept smoking.
Sure as sh*t, when I got inside, the stem was a little looser-fitting, and I saw this:
What you can't see are the cracks that go in 90-degree angles and fade out toward the bowl. The stem still fits okay, and no chunks or pieces are falling out or act like they want to.
...now, a couple of things:
* Meerschaum is a natural mineral, and minerals often have natural flaws. I can vouch for this.
* It was about 30'F outside.
That's all I can think...and here's what I'm theorizing:
* This was not heat-related. It cracked at the coolest possible part of the pipe, i.e., no temperature shock.
* This may have been stress-related--IMP uses a teflon-like ring insert in their pipes rather than the screw-in style...if the carver really shoved the sucker in there, it might have been under pressure, and this is the only place where any stress could have been put on the pipe by design.
* The stress possibility could have been related to moisture. Stem moisture happens, whether we know it or not. One thing I noticed was the pictures I took and shared with you here, the crack is practically insignificant. When I first took the pipe inside, it was human-hair width. The crack shrunk as the pipe cooled and possibly dried a little.
* Meerschaum expands with moisture and/or heat, more so than one might think.
Here are the facts:
* I spent $120--back then, no problem. These days? ale:
* Smokingpipes.com, it seems, no longer has IMP products. :scratch:
* There's more than one tale on the Internets about IMP pipes cracking.
* My other meer from SMS has never given me a problem, cold, hot, otherwise.
* I'm bummed.
* I'm pissed.
* Life goes on.
Conclusion: I doubt Smokingpipes.com would even honor me with a pat on the head for a pipe I've had for a year but decided to smoke today. I will likely smoke the pipe until it fails, as I still think it's cool as hell. Could last for decades. Only one way to find out.
Sad cow, I am.
https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t15517-they-re-just-meer-questions?highlight=meer
I lit it up for the first time tonight. Everything was great, until about thirty minutes in. Clenching lightly, puffin' away on some SOTE flake, and something like a .22 shot resonated through my skull. "Oh," I thought, "...that better not be what I thought it was." I kept smoking.
Sure as sh*t, when I got inside, the stem was a little looser-fitting, and I saw this:
What you can't see are the cracks that go in 90-degree angles and fade out toward the bowl. The stem still fits okay, and no chunks or pieces are falling out or act like they want to.
...now, a couple of things:
* Meerschaum is a natural mineral, and minerals often have natural flaws. I can vouch for this.
* It was about 30'F outside.
That's all I can think...and here's what I'm theorizing:
* This was not heat-related. It cracked at the coolest possible part of the pipe, i.e., no temperature shock.
* This may have been stress-related--IMP uses a teflon-like ring insert in their pipes rather than the screw-in style...if the carver really shoved the sucker in there, it might have been under pressure, and this is the only place where any stress could have been put on the pipe by design.
* The stress possibility could have been related to moisture. Stem moisture happens, whether we know it or not. One thing I noticed was the pictures I took and shared with you here, the crack is practically insignificant. When I first took the pipe inside, it was human-hair width. The crack shrunk as the pipe cooled and possibly dried a little.
* Meerschaum expands with moisture and/or heat, more so than one might think.
Here are the facts:
* I spent $120--back then, no problem. These days? ale:
* Smokingpipes.com, it seems, no longer has IMP products. :scratch:
* There's more than one tale on the Internets about IMP pipes cracking.
* My other meer from SMS has never given me a problem, cold, hot, otherwise.
* I'm bummed.
* I'm pissed.
* Life goes on.
Conclusion: I doubt Smokingpipes.com would even honor me with a pat on the head for a pipe I've had for a year but decided to smoke today. I will likely smoke the pipe until it fails, as I still think it's cool as hell. Could last for decades. Only one way to find out.
Sad cow, I am.