AND Meerschaum Purchase & Pipe Review...

First I would like to say this is not a negative review, we are talking about a $60 meerschaum pipe, the pipe is by no means perfect but I still think it was a good value and you get what you pay for. I know a lot of you have been looking at AND Meerschaum with skepticism, well here is my honest review of a pipe I just purchased from AND Meerschaum. I first sent them a message to find out a few things about the pipe because there was only one side profile photo of the pipe I was looking at and a lot of the pipes have decorations carved in them in random places, this is done to hide a blemish in most cases which is standard procedure but I wanted a fully smooth pipe, I also noticed that a lot of the Bulldog pipes have small chips where the bowl lines are cut in. I got a quick response that stated the pipe was fully smooth and it had no chips whatsoever. it was shipped Priority mail (small Flat Rate box) with bubble wrap around the pipe, no issues with packaging as the pipe arrived undamaged (at least from shipping) starting with the case it was pretty standard for a meerschaum pipe in this price range, a little rough astetically but sound and functional. The pipe is well shaped, it has a two piece plastic screw in push/pull tenon with larger than average airway for tenons of this type, the fit/finish of the stem is good, it fit squarely and tightly to the pipe, and the seam from shank to stem matches well, the button and slot in the mouthpiece is pretty standard, the drilling of the airway to the bowl is slightly off to one side but is even with the bottom of the bowl and should smoke fine, the draw is good for a pipe with this type tenon, my only negative is the small chips in the bowl grooves that I specifically asked about and was assured there were none, they looks worse in the photo than when holding the pipe and I may remove them myself. In conclusion I would recommend if you are considering purchasing from AND that you message them asking questions and requesting further photos of the pipe you are interested in, others I have spoke to have not been so lucky with their pipes. If you want a high quality/flawless pipe it will cost more in most cases....

OK guys, gotta do a update after several smokes, found some issues I didn't see at first, I was mistaken about the drilling, I guess it was the white on white that made it appear flush with bottom after a few smoke it was evident that it is drilled about 1/16" low also it will not pass a pipe cleaner because it is double drilled in the shank. The draw was strangely restricted for the size of the airway in both the pipe & tenon, finally shined a flashlight in it to see what was going on (should have been the first thing I did) to find that they went too deep with the pilot bit they used for mortise fitting creating a "well" and the mortise fitting was so long that it covered 85% of the airway! So I backed out the mortise fitting from the shank which was about a ¼" longer than the tenon, trimmed about 3/16" off with a razor blade and re installed, Presto! No wonder I couldn't get a draw. it weighs in at 53.4 grams, the block itself seems to be of good quality. It is likely that I wouldn't buy another from them.

Here is a rough sketch of the internals of the pipe before I shortened the mortise fitting...