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cfreud

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2014
256
284
I like the idea of acquiring a meerschaum. I want to give it a go. I'm looking at an IMP pipe to avoid issues of turning the stem incorrectly. My worry is touching the pipe because I'd like to do my best to see it color. (Clean hands OK?) I also doubt I'll be able work with beeswax because I am totally incompetent. Thoughts? Advice?

 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,205
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Hold it by the bit. If you want to palm the bowl use a clean, cotton handkerchief or wear a cotton glove. A couple of months, two or three bowls each evening and the stem should be colored sufficiently so that you can hold that way. I think waxing is a a waste of moneys and time.
Scrupulously clean hands will help but, not that much as you are trying not to disturb the original wax surface. Still, I'd stick with a clean cotton glove or handkerchief. The gloves used to be found by the box in photo shops back in the days of darkrooms. If I had a new meer, mine are all colored now, I'd still check at a photo shop or order a couple of boxes from Adorama or some such. Adorama is an on-line photo equipment retailer.

 

fnord

Lifer
Dec 28, 2011
2,746
8
Topeka, KS
Cfreud:
Warren has a lot of opinions and I do enjoy the majority of them. But I rarely see him go into advice offering mode.
However, when he does, you'd best take it to the bank.
Me, I don't know CAO/IMP from shinola about meerschaums, but, if I were you, I'd go into the cotton glove business.
Fnord

 

condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
7,991
26,606
New York
Buy something that has been smoked by someone else. It solves the color and clean hand issues and Ebay has plenty to choose. After that you can focus on buying the spectacular amazingly carved but totally impractical gargoyle/skull/horses head or garden ornament pipe to enjoy in the privacy of your own four walls. :nana:

 

tbradsim1

Lifer
Jan 14, 2012
9,092
11,008
Southwest Louisiana
CF Warren is right on, you can even use an old clean cotton T shirt, Blow the smoke over the pipe, it helps the coloring, getting into winter, I live in S Louisiana so no problem here, but if you live in a very cold climate you can crack your Meer smoking it outside. Enjoy.

 

anarchisthermit

Might Stick Around
Aug 31, 2015
91
1
Or just smoke it. After all, it is a pipe first and foremost. I have 4 Altinoks and one IMP. I have always handled them by the bowl with no gloves. They are grubby,dinged, scratched and are coloring just fine. I have a few meers because a good meer will smoke as good as a cob.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
Going against the wisdom conveyed here, I have a meer that was coloring slowly for years.

I finally bit the bullet and started waxing it with white bee's wax.

The color literally exploded onto the surface instantly.

Don't believe it? Read what Fred Bass has to say in "Slave To The White Goddess".
...not tryin' to pick a fight, just letting you know what I experienced.
NoNameClawmeer1.jpg


NoNameClawmeer2.jpg


DSCN0001_zps1a287654.jpg


 

mrbigglesworth

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 1, 2015
196
1
Winston Salem, NC
I just read "Slave To The White Goddess". Now I'm anxious to get that meer off the shelf and start using it. My parents brought me one back from a trip to Turkey several years ago. I've smoked it a handful of time but it's been sitting because I haven't known what to to with it. I'll try to take a photo of it tonight and post.

 

cfreud

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2014
256
284
Hey, I take all advice willingly. Cotton gloves, hankies, here we come. TBradsim1, thank you for the winter note as we're getting our first serious snow of the year here in Colorado. (I smoke in front of my fire place and will not be snowshoeing with my meerschaum.) I might venture into wax, but I want to see if I can color the pipe myself.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Cortez, that's about the most artfully colored Meerschaum I've seen, with the dark hues being posited in the right places, and the highlights being wide and unstained, mostly. Very few Meerschaums attain that level of rightness with color. Many get a little blotchy, dingy, or just irregular. That one's a beauty, and an especially attractive carving as well. I just don't go for Meerschaum because it's a whole new pad. I have, ah, plenty of pipes as it is.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
The color on those talons is starting to develop a little better, but it comes and goes with room conditions.

The depth and shading, etc., over various parts of the carving developed without any special attention; just

a uniform application of molten white bee's wax with a brush, while heating the pipe with a low power hot air blower.

 

cfreud

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2014
256
284
The meer has arrived and has been smoked. Really nice smoke. I would post a picture — it's an IMP bent apple — but I have none idea how to do that. Nonetheless, I am enjoying my expedition into meerschaum.

 

cfreud

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2014
256
284
http://pipesmagazine.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/album/10156/pipe-450x600.jpg

 

elbert

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 10, 2015
604
28
Handsome pipe! I'm far to clumsy to risk a meer, bit that's exactly the kind of look I'd go for.

 

cfreud

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2014
256
284
Elbert, I'm a klutz too. All smoking of this meerschaum is done within my apartment, and, by and large, on my couch. I'm not taking it out, except in a case when it goes to visit family during Christmas.

 

jackswilling

Lifer
Feb 15, 2015
1,777
24
"Cortez, that's about the most artfully colored Meerschaum I've seen, with the dark hues being posited in the right places, and the highlights being wide and unstained, mostly"
I completely agree. Now for the first time, I'm think about becoming a slave to the white goddess, seriously. Never even came close to considering it before reading this thread. More $$$ more $$$

 
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