Meer Newbie

I'm not a meer guy so I'll just say, welcome aboard. Many meer smokers here, so I'll let them address that.

There are a lot of old wives tales, dogma and superstition about meer pipes. Ime with one exception they can be treated just like briar. However, the meer does soften when wet and hot so do not scrape or poke the interior bowl while the pipe is warm. For years I've smoked a well caked meer out doors in the winter at temperatures below freezing with no ill effects. So yeah, meer is far hardier than most people credit it.
Anyway, a very conservative approach to cleaning after smoking is to empty the ash and dottle and immediately "dry ream" the bowl with a paper towel. Just corkscrew it in to the bowl and gently smooth all the surfaces. This is all you need to do. You can take the additional step of very gently smoothing out any build up of tar by scraping it out with the dull edge of a tamper. This is not really necessary, but it is simple provided you have a steady hand and a gentle touch.
I can't provided any advice to coloring the bowl. Some folks do apply a coat of beeswax to expedite the process. I just apply tobacco to the bowl and let nature do its thing.
Edit: One other thing, don't clean meerschaum with alcohol.

I agree with bigpond a lot of "superstition" about Meerschaum is out there. I would say this with pipe smoking in general though. After it cools off, a little bit water and a q-tip works great for me. As for coloring it, smoke it a lot. I have tried many different theories and none of them work more than the other. I chalk this up to one's own ritual. I do not allow mine to cake up. They say it colors at a much more slower rate. Not sure if this is true though. One thing is for sure though do not use alcohol to clean it. Smoke it, clean it be happy.

I do not know who originally posted this video but it was the best 25 minutes I have ever spent into learning about Meerschaum pipes. This guy will give you all the information you will need to enjoy your Meer.
https://youtu.be/uFrzVXXQtAI

I do not know who originally posted this video but it was the best 25 minutes I have ever spent into learning about Meerschaum pipes. This guy will give you all the information you will need to know about your Meer.
https://youtu.be/uFrzVXXQtAI

That is a great video and Bremen Pipe Smoker, as he's known on YouTube, has a lot of knowledge about meerschaum pipes. There is also a guy by the name of Jason the Meerschaum King that has multiple meerschaum video's on YT as well. Below is a video I did a couple months back discussing all things meerschaum pipes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUzGdKa-Z48

There is lots of talk and myth about meers that flies around these sites. Some with merit and some without. I smoke predominately meers and clays. I smoke them everyday, at home and out and about. Meers are not as fragile as some make them out to be, most are hearty and can be smoked like a freight train on fire. When I go on my fishing or hunting trips I will smoke 5 to 6 bowls a day from the same pipe for a few days on end. I'll wipe out the bowl with a paper towel or rag and I'll run a cleaner down the stem every couple of bowls. When cake starts to build, and cake will build even with wiping just much slower, I will carefully shave the cake out using the small blade on my trusty swiss army knife. Yes I have broken a meer when I dropped it, but I have also broken briars and clays the same way.

For cleaning I will clean my stems the same way as I clean my briar stems, a pipe cleaner dipped in strong rum. Sometimes I will use a stem brush for really dirty times. I CAREFULLY scrap out any cake using a small sharp knife instead of a reamer as I get better control with the knife. I wax my meers about once a month for the heavily used ones and every so often for the ones that don't get used as much but this is a personal choice as I know several meer smokers that never wax their pipes.

Enjoy your pipe, smoke your pipe, and don't be to afraid of it. The White Goddess is a lot tougher them many give her credit for.

Meerschaums will take a fair amount of pounding, especially the older ones as they have had decades to harden. I concur with pretty much everything said on this thread. Providing you don't try and knock the ash out on the heal of your boot or take them apart, especially the older ones they will give you a lifetime of faithful service.

too many! :rofl:

"The most interesting part is as soon as the bowl is filled with hot water, the exterior darkens (colors), what I believe to be a preview of how it'll look down the line as it's smoked more and more color leeches[sic] to the outside naturally."
Wow...I never knew that! Learn something new every time I visit this forum ::
Regards,
Jay.

I've got one meer that was my dad's he got at the outset of WWII, another I got in '73. Neither one ever built a cake, as I wiped them out right after smoking.

I find that a hot water rinse for my meers is efficacious. The most interesting part is as soon as the bowl is filled with hot water, the exterior darkens (colors), what I believe to be a preview of how it'll look down the line as it's smoked more and more color leeches to the outside naturally.

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Am I reading this correctly? I've never heard of this. What is the purpose of this practice? to clean the pipe? How often do you do that? any article that mentioned this method?
ren

"The purpose is to clean the bowl and airway; also to check how the coloring is coming along."
Surely one doesn't need to actually do anything to see how the colouring is coming along other than just to look at it?
Also, wouldn't hot water actually melt any beeswax already absorbed into the pipe? I'm not sure of the melting point of beeswax but I'm sure it's pretty low.
Regards,
Jay.

I find that my meers do not cake much (nor need it) and clean quite well with just a twist of a dry paper towel. While I use water on briars, I'm not sure I'd want to wet a meer down every time I smoke them. I have not tried this, but simply find it unnecessary. Unlike briar, water travels right through the meer taking stuff with it that I would prefer get there (if at all) the natural way. I am in no hurry to color a pipe. While wet, that meer softens a lot and I would be afraid of what that repeated softening and drying might eventually do. Meers offer that beautiful balance of having much of the beauty and longevity of a briar while having that uncanny transport of heat and moisture found in a cob. Whatever goes into them from the tobacco I cannot help but there are impurities in tap water.

"While wet, that meer softens a lot and I would be afraid of what that repeated softening and drying might eventually do."
Toobfreak, while I can understand that statement to a point, don't forget that the host rock from which your pipe was carved has suffered untold millennia of varying atmospheric conditions afore it made it to the carver's workshop!
Regards,
Jay.

don't forget that the host rock from which your pipe was carved has suffered untold millennia of varying atmospheric conditions afore it made it to the carver's workshop

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Well of course, you can treat your meerschaum any way you want, but sepiolite is mined from shafts hundreds of feet underground where it has likely been in a constant state of pressure and humidity for eons among the clays, brought to the surface, cleaned and dried. After that, AFAIK, it is never wetted again until the carver soaks it just to make the carving process temporarily easier. Most fibrous and porous materials generally tighten their bonds with drying, and most things which soften with water generally weaken further with repeated soakings, so I will err on the side of caution until someone proves to me that washing a meer pipe is actually good for it!