I'm looking for information about this family pipe. It supposedly belonged to my great-great-grandfather. He was born in Denmark in 1842. My dad was told that the bowl is made of elk horn and that the cap is silver. Has anyone seen anything like this? I'm working on a little plaque for the side of the shadowbox to preserve it's history. I would love to find out more about its origin and materials. Thanks for any clues you can provide!
Danish Elk Horn?
- Thread starter Lil Smokey
- Start date
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German/Austrian/Swiss kalmasch pipe - meerschaum bowl with silver fittings (most likely) with bit (mouth-piece) often of horn
Interesting. My dad was convinced that the bowl was horn because it's so thin (1/8th inch thick all the way through) and very hard. And, it was thought to be elk horn by 3 generations of family lore. He also thought it must have originated from a natural shape (horn) because "who would carve such an ugly shape on purpose". Ha. But, looking online now, I see that that's the traditional shape for kalmasch pipes. Thank you so much for the correct terminology.
wonderful piece. That is just so cool that it's gone through a handful of generations. My advice is don't ask dad what granddad smoked in it. Seriously that's awesome. I have a question for other members is there any advice about smoking or not smoking this pipe. I ask because I've always been curious how well these types of pipes smoke.
Does anyone know why they would carve the meerschaum bowl so thin (1/8" thick)? Is the bowl side of the pipe painted white? It has such a distinctive line of white that shouldn't be so straight if the dark part were from a natural handhold. It also looks like the some of the white is scratched off randomly .
It's meeschaum, it colors as its porosity dictates. Nothing strange about how it is coloring. It obviously wasn't smoked much over its long age. Its a nice relic from a long past age.
Very cool piece! Yup that is definitely a meer. You can tell immediately by the coloring. Although a little thin, I see no problem with a pipe with bowl walls that size. Awesome family heirloom. If there are Hallmarks on the silver you can date it more accurately.