Do Meerschaum wear out?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Drucquers Banner

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

birko

Lurker
Jan 25, 2016
4
0
Just starting to collect a few old meers and was wondering whether they become unsmokable at some point. I am thinking along the lines of clays which lose their ability to absorb moisture once all the tobacco tars and oils completely soak into the clay and block all the pores.
Of course this mostly concerns old estates which are deeply coloured from use.
Birko

 

wyfbane

Lifer
Apr 26, 2013
5,117
3,517
Tennessee
No. If you take care of them, they will last 150 years. Do not push a pipe cleaner through the stem too hard into the bowl, though. I have seen people gradually wear a hole in the bowl doing that. THAT will wear out your meer.

 

weezell

Lifer
Oct 12, 2011
13,653
49,163
PAKxPRO.jpg
135 years old and still smokes like a dream...

 
Apr 26, 2012
3,350
5,152
Washington State
Nope... Meerschaum pipes can take a lot of abuse. You can smoke them daily and they'll keep going strong.

If you had a Meerschaum pipe that is fully colored, and were to break it or chip the pipe the inside of the pipe would be pure white still.

 

shutterbugg

Lifer
Nov 18, 2013
1,451
21
My oldest pipe is a meer bulldog my dad got at the outset of WWII. I had the amber stem replaced (it cracked in half) with acrylic (apparently they stopped using amber at the time because of its flammability, at least that's what I was told) back in the early 70s, but otherwise it's still good as new. I also have a carved meer I bought around 1973, also still a fine smoker. Other nice meers are the Amboselis. Not long ago I picked up a couple NOS. They're black, look like rusticated briars. Obviously they don't color like the white ones, but they smoke great.

 

Sinan Altinok

Lurker
Aug 27, 2011
24
12
Ankara, Turkey
If the question really means about the meerschaum itself, my answer would be definitely no because meerschaum is sort of a mineral which is produced in thousands of years. It can wait a few more hundred years to wear out, I believe :)

 
Jan 10, 2014
48
2
blueeyedogre and Sinan Altinok are right. Meerschaum pipes perform superbly over a century after being carved. I have a golf (short straight shanked bulldog) with a Gorham sterling shank collar hallmarked 1863 to 1890. Another is an Austro-Hungarian Ulmer fantasy that is similar in design to a pipe in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum (Pijpenkabinet), catalog number 21.401, probably carved in Austria between 1840 and 1860. I have at least four other pipes made well over a century ago that need stems and not yet ready to be smoked but all are structurally sound. As I write this I am smoking a bent billiard by D. P. Ehrlich, ca. 1968. I expect all these pipes will eventually have to get new stems. Hopefully, the meerschaum stummels will be performing for my grandsons and great-grandsons well after I have departed this life and bequeathed my collection to them. Meerschaum can withstand heat of over 500 degrees F but they will crack if dropped and can be easily damaged by careless carbon cake removal. It is called the "White Goddess" with good reason. Treat meerschaum pipes lovingly and carefully.

 

toobfreak

Lifer
Dec 19, 2016
1,365
7
Birko, I've never seen a meer wear out from use yet, if anything, they seem to get better with age, but if you manage to ever do so, I think you get half off on the replacement just out of respect! :mrgreen: One thing you can do is if pushing the cleaner through any curves or bends like down at the bowl, you can put a little crook in the cleaner tip so that when it hits, it wants to follow the curve instead of plowing straight into the meerschaum and digging.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.