Applying Beeswax to Meerschaum

[gnatjulio]

Okay, I received a block of organic beeswax on thursday. Started applying to meerschaum pipe on friday night using technique that I read about on "Slave to the White Goddess" where I apply it as the bowl heats up during the smoke and buff it off with a piece of cotton cloth(a t-shirt) when you're done. Got three coats on, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.
I just would like to know if anybody here knows if this is how its supposed to be coming along (white specks) or am I doing something wrong with the technique. Any and every tip would be appreciated.

 

[frennchy11]

I may be wrong here but i belive that could just be the grain of the block. In the article it has some pictures of different examples of that. Either way, I think yours is coloring really nice!

 

[nsfisher]

No worries mate, you're doing fine. I think your "speckles" is the grain of your Meer. Not much you can do about it.

 

[gnatjulio]

Cool, thanks guys. Didn't see the pics in the article since I printed it without photos. I appreciate your input on the matter.

 

[morton]

Hey gnatjulio, how many smokes through that pipe? Both before the wax treatment and after, and was it colored like that before you put the wax on? I'm asking because I have the same pipe with nearly 100 smokes through it and its really only colored on the stem and with the same speckled color like yours. Do you handle it by the bowl while you smoke it? Your pipe is really starting to color beautifully and if its the wax that did it, I know what I'm going to start doing.

 

[gnatjulio]

@morton - Smoked it 12 times. Applied was 10,11 and 12th time. The very top of the rim was coloring already, the rest of the bowl was pure white. I stopped handling the bowl when I started with the beeswax. The bowl started to color from the first application. I did give it a break for a week after smoking it for like 8 days straight (before I started waxing).
I also started smoking an aromatic out of it. The article said that aros could help it color faster because of the casing or something.

 

[frennchy11]

Only 12 smokes! That's some fast color! I have close to 100 smokes out of mine and only the rim has much color...

 

[morton]

Wow! 12 times! That pipe is hugely colored compared to mine and I am quite amazed at how beautifully it has darkened. I am definitely going to get some beeswax and give that a go. I smoke just about anything and everything through mine so smoking some aros won't be a problem. Thanks for sharing the tips. I found the article you mentioned and read it too. Interesting stuff. Pipe smoking always amazes me because just when you think that you've reached a plateau in your knowledge, there is always another avenue to go down where you are learning stuff that you had no idea about. What a great hobby/addiction/pastime!

 

[gnatjulio]

Wow! 12 times! That pipe is hugely colored

Hehe, thats why I was wondering if I did something wrong. Like burned it out or something.

 

[baronsamedi]

It's amazing! We all for a similar pipe, but they all color so different. If it looks like that after 12 smokes I can't wait to see it in a year!

 

[baronsamedi]

Here's mine after way more than 12 smokes.

 

[morton]

Baron, after close to a hundred smokes, mine looks identical to yours. I am going to try the wax treatment to brown it up as I love that look. All of my other meers were estates so for the most part, they all have at least the start of a good patina or better and I'd like this one to match.

 

[cortezattic]

I don't know much about meerschaum, but I do know that something is wrong here.

Meerschaums don't color from the rim downward, they color from the end of the shank forward, and then up the bowl.

That speckling is disturbing too, but is merely one example of what can happen when a pipe doesn't take on color very well.
Why this is happening to you is something I'm unable to explain. I hope the tobacco you smoke in it gives you some pleasure,

but I fear your pipe will never take on the classic uniform deep reddish brown bing cherry color. But take heart, it may

develop some kind of idiosyncratic color pattern that is pleasing in its own right -- if not the ideal.
ps. I've heard of meerschaum possessing a mineral matrix (that is presumably random and uniform),

but I never heard it referred to as "grain", much less something with such nearly circular dots.

 

[gnatjulio]

Now that's what I wanted to hear. The coloring started as soon as I applied the beeswax, on the 10th smoke. Beeswax went on mostly from top down as that's how the bowl heated. We'll see.......

 

[cortezattic]

Well, that's a problem too. You see, heat is the enemy of the coloring process -- which is why some fanatics

use a coloring bowl insert to keep the burning tobacco out of the pipe. It's also why the shank should color first.

 

[cortezattic]

I may be blowing smoke outta my arse, but given that Storient's carvers were under some pressure to produce

a large volume of pipes, maybe the pre-smoke meerschaum conditioning process had some quality control issues.

Like I said, I really don't know. Maybe Storient can explain what's happening.

 

[buzkirk]

Question, did you use yellow Bees wax or White ?
Tom

 

[gnatjulio]

Yellow......as long as I can still smoke it I guess I can consider it a learning experience. So now waxing while bowl is warm is a no-no.

 

[morton]

If I read the Fred Bass article correctly, he does add the melted white wax to the bowl while warm and buffs it off when the pipe has cooled as you said you did. I don't have any experience with waxing meers but I do like the look of your pipe and as long as it smokes well, do whatever you like. It is after all, your pipe.

 

[gmwolford]

Mine seems to be coloring pretty evenly, a bit more around the bowl maybe. It's had 30-50 bowls and no waxing, just wiped occasionally with an old t-shirt.
When I got it:

Last night: