Salt for meers?

[GCook]

I was gifted a Peterson meer by a wonderful person who works at estate sales (price tag was $3, but she got it half off!) Cool, huh?

Well, I think the previous owner smoked pure perique in it. Nuff said.

Anyway, I was going to try the salt/alcohol treatment, but I thought better of it until I weigh in here. Is it ok for meers, too?

 

[puros_bran]

NO.

 

[puros_bran]

Take a couple pics of the inside of the bowl and put them up if you can..

 

[GCook]

Shot of the whole pipe:

https://i.servimg.com/u/f77/16/07/35/34/p1010212.jpg


The problem is residual Perique essence that I can't take.

How does one remove it from a meer?

 

[eon]

Hold your horses!

Not being an expert on meers I have heard that meerschaum and alcohol lead to disaster. Sorry for not being able to give a more solid advice but at least it might save the pipe from some unknown horrors.

The shape looks swell by the way! You socialize in good circles

 

[dougc905]

You'll get best results from a meer by cleaning the bowl right down to the meerschaum. Ream it down until the bowl is white. Then make part of your post-smoking ritual a wipe of the inside of the bowl with a cloth to minimise cake.

Don't use salt/alcohol because a meerschaum bowl is much more likely to split with this technique.

You know, that would be an excellent pipe to send away to say, LL, for a professional cleaning.

 

[GCook]

Thanks, all. This is one of the reasons I come here. And thanks for not pointing out this is a briar forum. There goes the neighborhood... hookahs and doper pipes are next.

The clay pipes I test new blends in are easy to clean: muffle furnace.

Btw, the darkened rim was done at the factory. I don't know about the bowl interior. I'm not crazy about the appearance, but form follows function. It is well made except the draft hole is too high, about 1/4 inch from the bottom. Maybe that's intentional.

 

[puros_bran]

We've talked Hookah before... It's a brotherhood before anything else.. And Briar is just one aspect.

Be very very very very very careful when you 'reem' that pipe.. I suspected it had gunk in it.



And if you ever decide to get rid of it, I want first dibs.

 

[Tak]

Hi Cook,
Instead of 'reaming' with a tool or knife, please consider this. And this comes from much experience with Meer. Sandpaper. Begin with no coarser than 200 or 220. Then go to 400. Use 400 as much as possible. DO NOT USE ANY LIQUIDS, that will soften your Meer to silly putty. Now if you have a Dremel or tool like that it is SLOW and SLIGHT Pressure. I've done this many times it takes a GENTLE hand and it very time consuming. That's a GREAT! Pipe. Gently sand down to a nice creamy Meer.

Thx,
Tak

 

[nosenhoj]

Let me Start by saying that I own more than 30 Meers. Some are 25 to 30 years old.Most of them are African Meerschaum, witch is the type that you have.The color of your pipe is a process that is baked in during manufacturing, as is the black bowl ring.African meer is much tougher than Turkish, but you must still
handle it as you would a fine briar.Except,no salt. no reeming,If you need to , touch up the inside of the bowl, very light sand paper,500 grit, and only if cake is starting to build.There should be no cake. No kind of alcohol. to remove any ghost
from other blends,they can be very quickly smoked away with no problem.
Hope this info is not too late. Good luck with that A-Meer.


"There's a Story behind every bowl"

 

[R.A.]

So glad I read this! I was about to do an achohol purge on a recently aquired meer, one self inflicted disaster averted :cheers: