The darkest areas weren't even exposed to smoke in the airway. Apologies for not being a clean cut. Did it with a wood cutting blade on a pocket knife.
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Coloring Progress Over Time/No of Bowls in one Meerschaum Pipe
- Thread starter cshubhra
- Start date
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The darkest areas weren't even exposed to smoke in the airway. Apologies for not being a clean cut. Did it with a wood cutting blade on a pocket knife.
My comment is out of context I could not load a photo of the pipe i was commenting on...gotta use a laptop
Pipe without wax would likely be sticky or feeling like a holding a chalk...
You are missing the point: Ultimately, wax has nothing to do with permanent coloring, that is, coloring from the smoke. As to feel, some of my meers have a slight tacky feel with or without wax.
Is it safe to say that pipe colors in 2 stages-in the first it colors outside in by the waxes reaction with heat and in the second stage inside out by the tobacco fluids?Saying that second stage starting about after a year or more of smoking?
Probably wouldn't feel any different from a clay.
It would color. Meerschaum is too absorbent for it not to.
Exactly.
More number of smokes than time. I put 500 smokes through my test subject before even a hint of real color started.
Thanks!By the way you should change your nick name from CHASING EMBERS TO CUTTING CHAMBERS..
There is still the question of why the initial coloring always seems to be concentrated only in the shank if it's just from heat...why not the bowl?
Possibly due to the bottle neck effect of the smoke entering the tenon from the airway.
NC/TX- Wax on; wax off. It doesn't matter what wax does or doesn't do; it's not the sort of coloring that folks seek.
I thought of that, but it doesn't seem to really explain it because the bowl can get quite hot but typically gets little to no initial coloring.
Given how porous meerschaum is, couldn't it simply be due to moisture seeping all the way through and accumulating in the lowest point?
Could it be that heat drives out coloring, and it's only when it cools a bit entering the shank that the color gets set?
i think that coloring does not like the heat...if u use them coloring extensions the most heat is in them and smoke goes down through your pipe and colors it...Likely the smoke is mostly coloring your pipe where the lower temperature is
Did anybody ever made a Sherlock Holmes looking hollow calabash out of solid meerschaum (instead of gourd or wood)with removable meerschaum cup?This way cup would not color much but meerschaum body would..same system as extension on the bowl
I don't think that's true because you do typically see coloring around the rim from lighting.
If the coloring has anything to do with the smoke, then it's going from the inside out. If it's just heat, then I'm not seeing any convincing reason why it wouldn't color on the bowl just as easily as the shank.
At this point it seems more likely to me that the coloring is the result of steam containing tobacco particles accumulating in the lowest point. The reason we don't see coloring on the interior where the pipes were cut might be because it seeps all the way through and just doesn't remain in that layer?
EDIT: I really don't know and find it interesting that this is not a known, settled issue...and it could be Embers is correct...but ? The rim coloring I mentioned does seem to validate the idea that heat alone is enough, but then the bowl question remains. The continual pattern of the shank coloring is what makes me lean toward it coming from the inside out.
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I think that rim coloring is a result from the direct charring from the match...The other day my match slipped and i touched the outside of the bowl about 1/4 inch bellow the rim and it colored it..Also top of the rim is lower temperature than inside of the bowl where tobacco is burning
Cutting CHambers since you are a scientist (or Edison) of meerschaum pipes did you ever tried filling the bowl still warm after emptying it with fresh tobacco and leave it in a pipe overnight?so cooler temp will maybe color it faster?Or maybe even pour some whiskey on the tobacco when bowl is still a little warm and filled with new tobacco and leave overnight?It may color it faster I think...I do not have disposable pipes to try it...
I often put off cleaning meerschaums until they are ready to smoke again but more often go back to back to back fills immediately after smoking. Rarely when awake do I not have a lit pipe and most of the time it's the same one.