Are you going to post the updates in this thread or start a new one?
An Observation of the Coloring of Vintage Meerschaum
- Thread starter Chasing Embers
- Start date
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Also was going to ask this too. Which thread am I following? Lol
So your theory is that because the cake softens/"opens" when getting hot more tar/nicotine/chemicals settles into the cake, the cake cools down and "closes" again, but those chemicals are still in the cake and have a longer effect on the material? Sounds plausible to me. Interesting experiment!
The cake might have a maximum on how much residue it can absorb and that's why Didimauws one tasted rancid. I think you'll run into a risk when the cake "opens" and there is to many residue it might seep into the tobacco your smoking at that moment and make it taste funny...
The cake might have a maximum on how much residue it can absorb and that's why Didimauws one tasted rancid. I think you'll run into a risk when the cake "opens" and there is to many residue it might seep into the tobacco your smoking at that moment and make it taste funny...
A warm water flush would have taken care of the taste. But I've been under the impression that cake equals no color. That's the only reason I scrape my meer bowls.
Well, meers were treated with spermaceti back then not just beeswax. So yes they were made differently.
I went ahead and started a new thread, so this one can be used as originally intended.
You are very welcome to post your updates Embers if you want to. It was your idea after all, and you probably smoke a lot more per day than I do.
I'll build a nice cake in my no name meer. Although I'll be the only one who really knows if it helps or hurts the coloring process. The thing won't even pass a pipe cleaner, so if it cracks, no big deal.
Cake is my specialty.
Cake is my specialty.
I never got the memo about keeping meer bowls differently than briar.
I don’t think you’ll see much difference.
I don’t think you’ll see much difference.
I may make notes of it in the WAYS thread.
Never had any luck in coloring meers. I think I know why now.
And dealing with the pipe for a while. I think the issue with cake in a meer and cracking has more to do with reaming then anything else. In fact I've heard that given as why not to build cake in a meer. But my little billiard pipe (I just realized it might be named that because you can clench it while playing without getting in the way) colors noticeably and without fading per smoke and didn't really start showing any color change at all till the cake showed up. So long story short I am pretty stoked about your experiment. Especially since I've suspected the same thing.
nah it actually just ghost the pipe hard. Or at least that's been my experience with trying it. Like it seeps the flavor upwards somehow and seems to actually just taste more and more like the original tobacco used then whatever you smoke through it. It does get a weird kind hardish semi cake type of fusion thing happening. I know cause I had one pipe that the dottle would not tap out and it triggered my stubborn side. Like oh you want to stay then you can stay!!! Once it was cleared out left a really strange ghost that was incredibly strong for a few smokes and then would be absent for 90 percent of the smoke and then show up one hundred percent and then ten smokes later it never came back. Though maybe it was just that tobacco in that pipe that one time.
I wonder why they even did it if it doesn't work? It may just be superstition, or the practice of putting some kind of button like thing in the bowl. But I don't think that it will be the best smoking experience possible, since a clean pipe tastes a bit better than a soggy one.
oh I meant I don't think it would necessarily get nasty.
As long as it tastes ok I'll keep the plug going
I wish I could remember the guy's name but a few years ago, we had a member who posted this smooth bent egg or maybe a blowfish... anyways, he had posted in progress pics, and it had these beautiful splotchy colorations come up on the sides of the bowl, and it had a mottled cloud-like formation. I haven't seen one color quite like his. I wish that I could remember a name or something to search for it by. Seems like he was on a beach or something. Anyways, I haven't seen another one color quite like his did.
Do a beeswax treatment. Anything n there will come to the top. It might go away again but at least it is encouraging. LOL
Let me suggest this, they only had one pipe they smoked.
A man who smoked a beautiful, artfully carved, expensive meerschaum pipe wasn’t slaving all day long in the Van Leer Coal mines, or chasing the tails of horses plowing fields.
I own a soft leather briefcase I bought in 1985, and it shines like a burnished copper penny.
It’s served me well for 37 years, and still has life to go.
What if I’d smoked exactly one fancy meerschaum for 37 years?