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A Question About Cleaning Pressed Meerschaum

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mipsld

mipsld

Lurker
Apr 2, 2015
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I received a few antique-shop pipes from my mother-in-law this Easter. One of them is a pressed meerschaum pipe about which I decided "dammit, I'm going to smoke it anyway." It seems like it will absorb moisture well. It has a few superficial cracks on the exterior, but I don't really care about those because of my above statement.

The problem is that it smells of mildew. There are also visible spots on the inside of the pipe. How would I go about tackling this sort of cleanup?

 
cortezattic

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,638
Chicago, IL
First thing I would do is try to get rid of the odor by freezing only the bowl -- overnight.

Beyond trying that, I wouldn't have a clue about how to handle a pressed meer.

I wouldn't use alcohol to clean the pipe. Pressed meers don't color as nicely as block, but I think they are just as absorbent.

Maybe you could scrub it with lemon juice, Oxyclean, or hydrogen peroxide -- just a guess.

Walker Briar Works can give it an ozone treatment, which might work; but that might be too expensive for this pipe.

 
mipsld

mipsld

Lurker
Apr 2, 2015
11
0
Oh, it's a cheap pipe alright. I'm not looking to do anything beyond household remedies; no special treatments. I plan on thoroughly putting this pipe through its paces.

 
monty55

monty55

Lifer
Apr 16, 2014
1,724
3,563
65
Bryan, Texas
Sounds kind of risky to me mpsld. If it is in fact absorbant, and has any moisture content at all and you freeze it, I would think it would crack from H2O expansion. If you use ANY household chemicals on it I would think they would be absorbed as well and I don't think that would be healthy to smoke.
Seems to me Greg Pease had a write up about removing odors from pipes using activated charcole and placing in an oven. I think those were briar, but logic tells me this would be safer than using household chemicals. Let us know how it turns out.

 
mipsld

mipsld

Lurker
Apr 2, 2015
11
0
I've heard horror stories about meers and freezing weather, but I think those involved smoking them outside. Regardless, due to the cracks this pipe has, I'm going to avoid freezing it. I will accomplish this goal by not freezing it.

 
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