Is this Meer bowl shot?

ciceronian · Mar 2, 2014

I carefully reamed down some of the massive cake buildup, but with some of the damage along the rim of the bowl and the amount of cake still sticking around, I'm wondering if this guy is just shot. And if not, if anyone has any tips/tricks on breathing life back into it.
http://imgur.com/NT2nr1v
http://imgur.com/0dpXxdr
EDIT: I meant to post this in pipe repair; my apologies. If a mod could move it there that'd be great.

condorlover1 · Mar 2, 2014

Are you sure its meerschaum? How old is this pipe? The reason I ask is I have come across pipes with these sort of liners in the past but they seem to be made of something similar to fire brick clay that is used for gas mantles. If it is meerschaum try some very fine sand paper and be careful the liner is not asbestos which was used as a pipe liner in the late 1940s.

jonasclark · Mar 9, 2014

Some of the meer-lined pipes are indeed lined with something else. I actually suspect "chip," "pressed," "Vienna" meerschaum, which is scraps, ground, mixed with a binding agent and pressed. I KNOW some modern meer-lined pipes use this. I suspect that's what makes the old, used ones look like crumbling clay but, yes, as far as I know, when it starts to fall apart like that, the only thing you can do is remove it.

rcstan · Mar 9, 2014

That is a briar pipe with a meerschaum lined bowl. Meaning that when they made it, they took a regular pipe and, for lack of a better term, mudded the inside of the bowl with meerschaum paste. Very few of these had an actual meerschaum bowl glued inside the briar. Neither are removable and they usually crumble if reamed out with a Castleford or Pipnet reamer ( the ones with various OD heads and the handle ).

What you could do is even out the meerschaum lining with some fine grit sandpaper. Once the lining is gone, it's still usable to a certain degree, but methinks it would be better suited for a pipe room ornament.

aristokles · Mar 9, 2014

I thought reaming meers was a big no-no.

redbeard · Mar 10, 2014

I would say no, but you should see the handy work someone did on one of my dads old pipes.... I've smoked it. Has a horrid ghost and not sure how to rid it besides smoking it. So hard to though!! It is really that bad of a ghost.
I agree that it doesn't look like meer though

rcstan · Mar 10, 2014

Nothing wrong with carefully reaming Meers, although I normally use a sharp pipe knife with a blunt end, then sandpaper. If there's heavy cake inside a Meerschaum bowl, you can't do much more damage taking a reamer to it; you can carefully over-ream it, get rid of the charred/clogged area, and make it all better.

foggymountain · Mar 14, 2014

I had a pipe like that when I was a teenager. It was junk. I threw it away. Yes you can ream meerschaum, if that is what it is.

gmwolford · Mar 14, 2014

You might try reading through this post as well as some of Steve's other excellent articles.

shaintiques · Mar 14, 2014

A guy recently came to our pipe club with a similar pipe. The difference was that his meer lining had cracked around the bottom and basically would slide out of the bowl. The above comments have been really helpful and the advice is either to ream down the meer and get the cake out, ream the meer all the way out, or chunk it. What I have found through the years of pipe restoration is that some pipes can be salvaged and being great smokers are worth the time, but some just can't be saved. And also though many of these old pipes are good smokers many aren't and it would be good to invest in a good pipe like a Nording for example.

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