IMP Description on Smokingpipes

this is just a belief

After a little research, that does seem to be a common belief, so I doubt anyone is intentionally trying to deceive.
However, my very little research did not let me know WHAT meerschaum is actually made from.
What is meerschaum, exactly?

Meerschaum is hydrous magnesium silicate. It's a mineral, indeed not the fossilized remains of sea creatures' shells. But the idea that it is, is quite old and very commonly-believed. The name comes not only from its lightness and porosity (raw meerschaum floats in water), but also due to an old German folk belief that it was literally foam from ocean waves, turned solid. As to how, exactly, it forms, I do not know.
I DO know that the only quality that's high enough for pipe-making does come from turkey, and there are five broad categories, depending on from which of five villages it comes. It's further graded once it goes to market, based on color, purity, porosity and weight; not all high-quality meerschaum is light, but all light meerschaum is high-quality. The meerschaum formerly mined in Africa is no longer available, as the mines completely ran out; it's denser than Turkish meerschaum and was commonly heat-treated in a process called calcining, as well as being pre-stained in various shades on yellow, brick red, brown or black (typically with the top around the bowl opening stained black) since it won't color from smoking as easily as Turkish block will. There are also some low-quality deposits in a few other places, including (I think) Montana and Utah.
Quite sad that nobody in the US seems to have any raw blocks for sale-- yes, I know exportation of uncarved blocks from Turkey is illegal, but I'd love to obtain one small, rough lump to display on my pipe shelves.

It is a crystalized magnesium silicate, and is sometimes found floating on the Black Sea and other Mediteranian waters, hence the sea foam misnomer. As for its formation, in its natural state it is very wet and clay-like, and I have read that a lot of the Middle East was once a sea bed, so why not compacted marine

life? Or, it could be sugar and fairy farts. :mrgreen:

So meerschaum is hydrous magnesium silicate. I've heard the fossilized sea creature story so often, I will have to write this down somewhere to imbed it in my memory. I've always thought I learned a lot of good things on Forums, and this is one illustration.

Also called sepiolite, and is often found with deposits of asbestos.

"I'm NOT saying aliens dropped it here or it's waste product from their ships....BUT WHAT IF????"....Big Hair Guy ancient aliens