Meerschaum was formed as follows. 50,000,000 years ago there were microscopic shell fish in the Black Sea, north of Turkey. When they died they ended up under the floor of the sea, The weight of the water and ocean bed eventually compressed them into meerschaum. It is called seafoam because it sometimes washed up on shore and people did not know what it was. It smokes ok, but only smokes really well when it is VERY well broken in. This actually takes many years. I got my first one in 1965. It was about 10 years before it smoked well. I didn't much care then, because I was young and poor, so I smoked it anyway. When it started to smoke well, the bowl was tobacco brown, and the stem even darker. Then it suddenly became a GREAT smoke. After some years more, it began to fall apart. The amber stem was threaded directly into the meerschaum without metal threading. That crumbled and I had to tape the stem and shank together. Then the bottom of the bowl became pierced from 30 years of employing a tool that was too sharp. I put a piece of tape on that too. The pipe continued to smoke unusually well though. Finally, the bowl was shortened quite a bit by my knocking it against an ashtray for years. Then the pipe became oversmoked and soggy tasting. I threw it out. I had that pipe for over 45 years, and it smoked well a little more than half the time. Today I have 11 meerschaums. The ones sold by Peterson (though made in Turkey) are good, with much better plumbing than on my first meer. The others I have are of Turkish design. No offence meant to the Turks, but their pipe designs are not very good. Narrow draft holes make them gurgle, and the tenons are poor and usually flex. They won't last for the long haul. I got those pipes for the carving. The best Turkish carvers are real artists. But most of them are poorly carved and basically junk.