The Importance of Being Ernest, or Keeping Your Meerschaum Pipe Clean

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telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
One of the first pipes I ever bought, nearly four decades ago, was a CAO Calabash Meerschaum. It was a joy to smoke, but a pain to clean. One of the areas that was not reinforced to me was the importance of keeping the inner chamber of the gourd cleaned. Sometime, during the early 90s, I watched helplessly as the meerschaum bowl pop out of the gourd. Thank goodness, it didn't fall to the ground and break. But stupidly, I superglued it in.

I rarely smoked the pipe through the years, but because I had glued the bowl in, I never took it apart to inspect and clean the chamber. Over the years, the pipe grew sour and developed a rancid taste. Finally, using the thin blade of a knife, I was able to pop the bowl out, Fortunately, I did not tear up the gourd, but... the cork lining was toast. I cleaned the gourd, ordered some cork for musical instruments, relined the rim, put on some musical cork preserver, and there it was - good as new.

Yet, the sour taste remained. I since have broken the pipe apart again and cleaned it thoroughly once again. Much of the caked on goo that was still there and apparently rose more to the surface was now able to be cleaned away even better.

I love this pipe, and I know my story is one many others have had as well - Calabash gourd meerschaums that go sour.

I post this hoping some of you have some great ideas you would like to share in regards to keeping your Gourd Calabash pipes cleaned and tasting fresh.image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgView attachment 81701image.jpg
 
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telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
I will admit I haven’t cleaned the gourd of my calabash’s. They are two sizes and I wasn’t sure if they were attached by cork or glued. Tried to twist to remove but no success.
I found that if you stick a very thin blade in-between the bowl and the cork that you can then apply a lift pressure to the bowl. Work your way around. It will come off. Twisting does not seem to work and could potentially harm the gourd.
 

jeepnewbie

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 12, 2013
952
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Byron
www.facebook.com
I found that if you stick a very thin blade in-between the bowl and the cork that you can then apply a lift pressure to the bowl. Work your way around. It will come off. Twisting does not seem to work and could potentially harm the gourd.
I will try this, it makes sense as they most likely are not perfectly round.
 
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