very new to the pipe, and i heard of meerschaum so i figured i'd try that. i went on ebay and bught a new one.. like 15 bucks. when it came in i noticed its hard like clay, heats up fast, and sometimes get hot smoke through pipe. recently i got another meer from ebay and this was used. i see it has a nice soft texture and so soft as a matter of fact, that i can lightly mar the pipe with just a fingernail. neither have any letters or markings printed on them. are both meers?
Identifying Meerschaum
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Meerschaum makes amazing pipes but, as with briar, the experience is effected by the quality and the carving of it. Meerschaummarket on eBay is a reputable seller of HQ meer in my opinion, and a good man on the forums, Storient, can also offer you good pipes at greats prices. Some other main streams are SMS and IMP. Welcome to pipe smoking and to the forums. Lot of great info here and tons of great tobacco out there!!
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Show us some pix. Sounds like low-quality engineering on the $15 one, but meerschaum is easy to scratch up. I have 2 Paykoc Meers and a Storient and the Storient is the best of the lot. Yavuz will work with you on a price point too. http://meerschaumpipe.us/ the stuff he has in stock, he can get you pretty quick. Custom work will take longer, about a month for most of us it seems.
There are two types of meer pipes, block and pressed. Sounds like your $15 may be pressed. Meerschaum is very soft compared to briar it is also suseptable to cold so do not smoke it outside when cold and if dropped it will shatter. I have two meers a CAO lattice dublin and an altinook custom apple. The cao i have had for 15 years and never turned color (a sign of pressed meerschaum) the altinook is block and started to color the firsttime i smoked it.
Has anyone heard of "Astas"? On my recent visit to Istanbul I picked one up for a song in the Egyptian Market. Since getting home I have completley failed at finding any info on this brand, which surprised me as it has his holo-logo on the stem which made me think it would be an established brand...
Smokes great & is colouring really well...
(Still waiting on my Storient PM2012, but have absolute faith that it will be a Stonker once it gets here!)
Smokes great & is colouring really well...
(Still waiting on my Storient PM2012, but have absolute faith that it will be a Stonker once it gets here!)
It probably is. $15 sounds way too cheap fora new meer. I'd say go with a Storient. They are good quality and not overly expensive.
One thing you have to keep in mind about meerschaum is the name on the pipe, if it has one, has
nothing to do with it's "manufactured" quality. Meerschaum isn't 'made' by the distributor. It's
mined by someone, carved by another and sold to the guy that puts his name on it. In some cases
the carver's name goes on it and he may sell it himself if he's the master carver.
Also the quality of the mineral comes in play. Some have better absorption qualities than others,
depending on where the stone was mined and how deep.
As sblumberjack said, some are made of powder that's swept up off the carving room floor and pressed
with glue to make cheep pipes. (Most calabash bowls are of this variety). Block Meerschaum is the
only way to go as far as I'm concerned.
The one quick way to tell is... wet the bowl and see if it's absorbed or stays there. (I wouldn't
use saliva if's it's not my pipe). If 'the wetness' is immediately absorbed, it's block meerschaum.
nothing to do with it's "manufactured" quality. Meerschaum isn't 'made' by the distributor. It's
mined by someone, carved by another and sold to the guy that puts his name on it. In some cases
the carver's name goes on it and he may sell it himself if he's the master carver.
Also the quality of the mineral comes in play. Some have better absorption qualities than others,
depending on where the stone was mined and how deep.
As sblumberjack said, some are made of powder that's swept up off the carving room floor and pressed
with glue to make cheep pipes. (Most calabash bowls are of this variety). Block Meerschaum is the
only way to go as far as I'm concerned.
The one quick way to tell is... wet the bowl and see if it's absorbed or stays there. (I wouldn't
use saliva if's it's not my pipe). If 'the wetness' is immediately absorbed, it's block meerschaum.
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