Amber Stems

[condorlover1]

I personally am I huge fan of amber stems on meerschaum pipes. They work well and feel good and will outlast you as a smoker if you don't bite down on your stems. I have had the amberine stems and have found them to be lacking and very fragile, in that my teeth seem to wear holes in the stems underside which never happens with a good balkan amber stem. On odd occasions I am able to buy up job lots of ambers stems when they come on the market and this has kept my pipe collections running along nicely. Has anyone here in 'meerschaum world' found anyone who makes real amber stems still?

 

[zack24]

I use bits of amber in my pipes, but the expense is ridiculous even for a small stem insert. This piece of Mexican Red Amber was $25 in Costa Rica- it will make 1 insert on a 16mm stem.....A chunk large enough to make full stems would cost $$$$....

 

[condorlover1]

I just buy up the stems that were made as replacements for pipes. They show up that auction site o'vey quite often and sometimes in quantities!

 

[captainsousie]

Never had the pleasure of an amber stem. It's on my list but I can't seem to find a pipe with one that is in good enough shape in my price range. Just like all the others though, it'll happen in its own time.
Hell, I'll be in the Baltics in a couple months so who knows what I might find there.

 

[condorlover1]

Actually most of the better and older meerschaums have Baltic amber stems which they were doing right up till the early 1920s. The pipe shaintiques is smoking in the 90 year old meerschaum thread has what is known as a Baltic toffee colored amber stem. They are in my opinion the best amber stems ever made and accept a fair amount of abuse. If you look around in the Baltic states and especially places like Tallinn in Estonia you will find a lot of these in flea markets. I always turn up quite a few in Finland when visiting my in-laws.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I have a contact at an amber mine in Poland. I visited the mine about five years ago, and there is still good rough trickling out. I can get amber and carve a stem to fit any pipe, but the cost is going to be pushing $1000. And, that is with me practically doing the labor for free.

 

[condorlover1]

Let me know as I aways have pipes that need amber stems!

 

[foggymountain]

They are known to be rough on the teeth.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Real amber would be very rough on the teeth and not bendable at all. I wonder if reconstituted amber is what stems are made of? If that's the case, they would be easier on the teeth, bendable, and a tad more reasonably priced to use outside of jewelry. I don't have a source for recon, but I don't think it would be impossible.
If you want to test some of the amber stems that you have, find a spot that won't be seen easily, like inside the tenon. Heat up a small nail with a lighter till it's red hot and touch the amber. If a small trickle of smoke comes off the amber, then it's reconstituted. Recon is when they grind up the amber leftovers from cutting it into gems, and they mix it with a binder (now a days the binder is cyanoacrylate, but back in the day is was a binder made of horse hooves, which will smell terrible if burned).

 

[numbersix]

I have one amber stem on a meer that I have for sale, but will probably keep. I like amber, but I am not a clenched (I tried to put an "r" at the end but the stupid spell check won't let me no matter what I do).