A Rumination on the Luxury of Smoking a Meerschaum Pipe

[warren]

Luxury? When at home I invariable have a meer going. They are my "go to pipes." Simply a day to day smoke properly delivering nicotine on demand, eoght to ten times a day. But, romanticizing the pipe and, "all things pipe" is what a lot of people here enjoy. It's been said to refine a person, make them kinder, gentler and even smarter.

You are simply ruminating so, your "lawyer suit" observation is unassailable.

 

[Chasing Embers]

What’s the new business? As a small business owner myself I’m always interested to hear about people starting a business.

My barber shop.?

 

[Briar Lee]

Luxury? When at home I invariable have a meer going. They are my "go to pipes." Simply a day to day smoke properly delivering nicotine on demand, eoght to ten times a day. But, romanticizing the pipe and, "all things pipe" is what a lot of people here enjoy. It's been said to refine a person, make them kinder, gentler and even smarter.

You are simply ruminating so, your "lawyer suit" observation is unassailable.

If I wasn’t a lawyer, I don’t think I’d have much to do with the vainglorious narcissists myself.

But who wants to buy the cheapest diamond, or watch, or pen, or suit, or lawyer?

For hundreds of years, a meerschaum pipe has been such a luxury that even today the vast majority are carved into dreams that sleep in a drawer like bone china and genuine silver tableware, and only come to life occasionally.

I bought an absolutely magnificent Tristar Turkish semiautomatic shotgun a month or so ago. It has more bling and style than anybody could want, and the price was $399, brand new.

The Turkish lira, is getting hurt really bad on exchange markets.

After almost forty years behind a big oak desk, wearing a thousand dollar suit and hundred dollar silk ties, I think I rate a thousand dollar pipe on my office desk.

My suits and ties will all be worthless when I’m not around anymore to wear them.

A luxury grade meerschaum will sell good at the sale, of my kids don’t want it, as my old grandmother used to say.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

 

[cosmicfolklore]

We've really got to get you to a real pipe shop... or a pipe show, well, maybe not a pipe show right off the bat. That might blow your mind. We'll start with just a shop that has more than factory mades.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yeah, top of the line meerschaums are widely available to just about any tax bracket. I've bought eight since April and haven't paid more than $250 for any of them. Paykok pipes are okay and very affordable. A tobacco shop I used to frequent kept them in a counter case and sold them from $35-$100. One of my daughters got me one years ago but the draw is terrible due to those screw in tenon and mortise inserts.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I think I rate a thousand dollar pipe on my office desk.

Yep, got those too and I'm just a factory guy.

 

[telescopes]

geometrically more expensive

How does that compute? (L x H) /2=

 

[jpmcwjr]

For a grand per meerschaum, you really need a bespoke tailor, such as found on Saville Row and environs. Don't think you can walk out for less than three grand, may be five now!

 

[mso489]

What was the question? The late great fish'n'banjo sent me my one and only Meerschaum, an estate billiard carved with wine grapes. The luxury of Meerschaum for me is the clarity and definition of the blend being smoked. That is the Meerschaum's singular virtue.

 

[lawdawg]

A well dressed lawyer must spend a thousand dollars for his custom, tailor made suit, and that’s been true for thirty years. What’s strange is that the internet has increased the quality and thread count of the thousand dollar suit.

I am very demanding about the quality and fit of my business suits, and I buy all my suits from Brooks Brothers on sale for around $500. About $100 later at my tailor's shop, these suits look like they were made for me.

They are all from the 1818 or Golden Fleece lines and all made in the U.S.A. or Italy. The MSRP is between $1,000 and $1,500 but you can catch them on a steep sale a couple times a year. If Brooks Brothers is good enough for Presidents and Senators, it's good enough for a country lawyer like me.

If I wasn’t a lawyer, I don’t think I’d have much to do with the vainglorious narcissists myself.

But who wants to buy the cheapest diamond, or watch, or pen, or suit, or lawyer?

For hundreds of years, a meerschaum pipe has been such a luxury that even today the vast majority are carved into dreams that sleep in a drawer like bone china and genuine silver tableware, and only come to life occasionally.

I bought an absolutely magnificent Tristar Turkish semiautomatic shotgun a month or so ago. It has more bling and style than anybody could want, and the price was $399, brand new.

The Turkish lira, is getting hurt really bad on exchange markets.

After almost forty years behind a big oak desk, wearing a thousand dollar suit and hundred dollar silk ties, I think I rate a thousand dollar pipe on my office desk.

My suits and ties will all be worthless when I’m not around anymore to wear them.

A luxury grade meerschaum will sell good at the sale, of my kids don’t want it, as my old grandmother used to say.

You can buy a beautiful block meerschaum figural pipe for a few hundred bucks. They are quite attainable.

Likewise with well-made ties. I buy $100.00 ties all the time on eBay for an average of about $15.00 a piece. In this day where white collar professionals frequently forego wearing a tie, it's easy to find nice ones for pennies on the dollar.

I must confess, it has been very enjoyable watching someone as erudite as yourself argue by implication that mass produced mid-century American pipes are superior to today's artisan pipes. It takes an intelligent and well-spoken person to make such an absurdity even seem plausible, so I must commend you on that. I think you've got it totally backwards on the pipe issue, but I would not relish seeing you at opposing counsel's table at my next trial

 

[peregrinus]

It takes an intelligent and well-spoken person to make such an absurdity even seem plausible,

And, if I may add, entertaining as well.

 

[lawdawg]

For a grand per meerschaum, you really need a bespoke tailor, such as found on Saville Row and environs. Don't think you can walk out for less than three grand, may be five now!

Exactly. The only place you're getting a bespoke suit for $1,000 is Thailand. There are guys in markets like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles who vacation there every year or two for a couple weeks and fill their suitcases with bespoke suits on the return. Overall it's probably way cheaper than having 5 new bespoke suits made at $3,500 a piece (on the lower end of the price range), plus you get to spend a couple weeks on the beach between fittings.

The other "tailor-made" suit is just going to be a made-to-measure, which is really no better than just finding a good off-the-rack fit because neither is going to take into account the unique nuances of an individual body. The key to making these suits look good is finding a maker whose cut already fits you quite well just by chance, and having a skilled tailor take care of the rest.

 

[cfreud]

* First, I love any thread that starts, "A Rumination on ..." Excellent title.

* I have an IMP billiard with a smooth finish. I'm a traditional-shapes guy. I also am a klutz and wanted a simple push/pull tenon.

* I, like most pipe smokers, bought a meer with visions of smoking it into a grandly colored heirloom -- I have no kids -- but, yes, this pipe was going to the be the dream meer, eventually coloring into something gorgeous. I did a lot of the things suggested suggested -- cloth gloves when handling it, washing out the bowl with a moist paper towel, etc.

* My pipe has colored a little bit -- I am also technologically-challenged, so I don't know how to post a picture (and I don't wanna try) ... the stem has colored well, the top is charred (just because) and a little color is coming into the very top of the bowl. I think I've had this pipe for a while (5 years?), smoking it in bursts of intense smoking when I remember I have a meer.

* Bottom line: I have no idea if I will ever live long enough or smoke enough to color this sucker. But the fact remains, my meer smokes like a champ, and I should just appreciate the smoke, whether the darn thing is coloring or not. Like others have mentioned, I enjoy the meer's ability to smoke different blends (with a normal cleaning) back-to-back. Perhaps, it's a personal thing, but I am a bit more of a drooler, still after all these years, and the meer does a better job with saliva than briar. Another plus. Color or not, I'm just smoking the pipe and enjoying it.

 

[Briar Lee]

Yeah, top of the line meerschaums are widely available to just about any tax bracket. I've bought eight since April and haven't paid more than $250 for any of them. Paykok pipes are okay and very affordable. A tobacco shop I used to frequent kept them in a counter case and sold them from $35-$100. One of my daughters got me one years ago but the draw is terrible due to those screw in tenon and mortise inserts.

The best head of the county commission (affectionately called the chief road judge by those old enough to remember when men wore hats and opened doors for ladies) this county ever had and I were discussing the state of the county about twenty five years ago, and he said something worth quoting. I wish I’d said this, but I’ll pass it along:

“This county has six hundred miles of gravel roads and every house on those roads has a resident expert on how to operate a road grader.”

If you think you have problems, try keeping all the expert armchair road grader operators happy who live on a gravel road.

My youngest son went to a gun show last weekend, and he’s been double vaccinated, but my wife is my paralegal and we have such a new rush of estate business from coronavirus deaths she’s had me work from home as much as possible, which allows me more pipe time. He took four, of my least favorite old shotguns and came home with $1,500 for me.

Two lawyers and the best orthodontist I knew all sleep in the graveyard dead of Covid 19, and many more wind broke like an old horse, that survived. I saw a young and promising lawyer yesterday at the courthouse with a portable oxygen bottle and a new found faith in vaccinations share the elevator with me. When I see such things I’m reminded of the old Latin phrase Et In Arcadia Ego (Death also is here in Paradise).

If I don’t blow that $1,500 on something wonderful and everlasting like a thousand dollar grade meerschaum pipe,,,,,

I’ll waste it on bills, insurance or other frivolous things of that nature.

I just need to find me one of them there bona fide, card carrying, certified meerschaum experts, preferably a Turk with a mustache

How does that compute? (L x H) /2=

If the $35 Mastercraft meerschaum I scored on eBay was say, a grade 5 meerschaum on the meerschaum scale, to go up one grade might double the price, and to go up one more grade will double the price again, and the top grade is like a hundred thousand dollars on EBay.

 

[telescopes]

The best head of the county commission (affectionately called the chief road judge by those old enough to remember when men wore hats and opened doors for ladies) this county ever had and I were discussing the state of the county about twenty five years ago, and he said something worth quoting. I wish I’d said this, but I’ll pass it along:

“This county has six hundred miles of gravel roads and every house on those roads has a resident expert on how to operate a road grader.”

If you think you have problems, try keeping all the expert armchair road grader operators happy who live on a gravel road.

My youngest son went to a gun show last weekend, and he’s been double vaccinated, but my wife is my paralegal and we have such a new rush of estate business from coronavirus deaths she’s had me work from home as much as possible, which allows me more pipe time. He took four, of my least favorite old shotguns and came home with $1,500 for me.

Two lawyers and the best orthodontist I knew all sleep in the graveyard dead of Covid 19, and many more wind broke like an old horse, that survived. I saw a young and promising lawyer yesterday at the courthouse with a portable oxygen bottle and a new found faith in vaccinations share the elevator with me. When I see such things I’m reminded of the old Latin phrase Et In Arcadia Ego (Death also is here in Paradise).

If I don’t blow that $1,500 on something wonderful and everlasting like a thousand dollar grade meerschaum pipe,,,,,

I’ll waste it on bills, insurance or other frivolous things of that nature.

I just need to find me one of them there bona fide, card carrying, certified meerschaum experts, preferably a Turk with a mustache



If the $35 Mastercraft meerschaum I scored on eBay was say, a grade 5 meerschaum on the meerschaum scale, to go up one grade might double the price, and to go up one more grade will double the price again, and the top grade is like a hundred thousand dollars on EBay.

View attachment 96930

I think you meant...expediential.

Now mind you, I don't have a JD, just a lowly Ed.D. and I worked as an educator in the school system, but...

I had to give you a red mark, LOL.

Geometric refers to shapes, experiential refers to a statistical growth best explained through a mathematical equation.

Anyway... you're from Missouri. So am I. Folks who cherish their freedom and would rather die than be told to vaccinate.

I get that. I build and make guns as a hobby. Yup, there is some money in that right now.

But, as I am often reminded by men in suits, ...

Actually, they don't remind me of anything but I am too busy having fun not working.

Yeh, retirement is a joy.

But I do enjoy your post and I am glad you are busy contributing to the forum... For real.

By the way, you don't happen to be related to anyone who use to own a pool hall and had the same high opinion about having and making money, LOL?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

You seem like a good man and I hope you make it out to the West Coast Pipe Show this November.

All the best,

Michael

 

[Chasing Embers]

I build and make guns as a hobby. Yup, there is some money in that right now.

That's big here right now too.

 

[Chasing Embers]

If the $35 Mastercraft meerschaum I scored on eBay was say, a grade 5 meerschaum on the meerschaum scale,

That's a good looking one. Standard shapes are often hard to find in meerschaum.

 

[Briar Lee]

That's a good looking one. Standard shapes are often hard to find in meerschaum.

Mastercraft never made a pipe, as I understand their story. I own some Mastercraft briars that are superb examples. Bing Crosby smoked a Mastercraft, or at least they paid him to advertise them.

One measure of economy on my $31 eBay Mastercraft meerschaum is that it didn’t come with a Turkish made custom pipe case.

It’s a standard sized billiard made of meerschaum and I wish the flyer in the box said genuine block meerschaum, but Mastercraft’s reputation was such it likely is a medium grade of real block Turkish meerschaum.

If you light your pipe and contemplate how that pipe came into being, it’s easy to imagine a 1953 young wife with a kid or two with her shopping for Daddy’s Christmas present, at the fine pipe section of a real pipe shop.

She can pick any Kaywoodie Flame Grain, for $10.

She sees the display of $10 Mastercraft meerschaums and the salesman points out that if he needs the pipe repaired, it’s only $2 to fix it and if he drops it, Mastercraft will replace it for only $4.

Cachhhhig said the cash register.

$4 was what Mastercraft paid to have thaf pipe made.

Or at least it’s pretty to think so.

 

[snagstangl]

Well shit, I'm a "country lawyer" without a $1500 suit, add it to the list of things I have done wrong.