Didimauw's One Meer for One Year Redemption. 12/15/2022
- Thread starter didimauw
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Smoking Bowl 27 right now. This week will be warm so it'll get lots of use.
Last night I reamed the cake due to too many ghosts hanging around. And cleaned the bowl with a wet pipe cleaner. I also opened up the airway in the tenon, as there was small pieces of acrylic hanging, blocking part of the airway. 100 percent better. Also last week I sanded inside the button, to smooth it out as it was sharp to my tongue.
Last night I reamed the cake due to too many ghosts hanging around. And cleaned the bowl with a wet pipe cleaner. I also opened up the airway in the tenon, as there was small pieces of acrylic hanging, blocking part of the airway. 100 percent better. Also last week I sanded inside the button, to smooth it out as it was sharp to my tongue.
It's so ...cute.
Even when there were big sellers of lots of meerschaums, it was always a cottage industry, each pipe being uniquely carved by one worker.
There used to be pressed meerschaums, and the meerschaum bowl insert industry was mechanized. I don’t count my pressed meerschaum pipe as a real meer.
My cheapest meerschaum is a smaller claw and egg I bought about forty years ago, and it’s a good pipe, that won’t color.
There are a bunch of others close to it out there, some of them made of better, some worse meerschaum.
The rough shape is carved by one or more people before being handed to the master carver to finish.
Those have been being replaced with a more briar like fitting over the past 20+ years.
Thanks, I stand corrected.
But one worker finished it, always. And my newest meerschaum is “Jack”, made about 2002 or so. Thanks to your advice I have 15 Delrin fittings coming, less than $2 each.
If tomorrow a new meerschaum mine was discovered underneath London or New York I doubt it would ever pay off. The cost of living is too high there, for all the labor required, and there are no master carvers outside of Turkey.
One factor that might improve all block meerschaum pipes for sale is the buggy whip manufacturer paradox.
When there was a huge demand for buggy whips there were cheap, almost worthless buggy whips competing with good buggy whips.
My Amish renter’s father is a master harness maker, his shop next to my farm in Spout Spring Hollow, and he’s training his son.
Every bit of a horse’s harness is hand made in that shop from the very best materials.
My friend said a horse that needed the entire harness would cost about $550 to outfit, and the harness custom fitted.
I don’t have a horse, but I was fascinated with the shop, and asked can you make me a belt?
He laughed and said sure, and took a $14 synthetic leather belt off the peg and then matched it to my length.
To keep their pants up, the Amish don’t waste a dollar for traditions sake.
Ever see a group of teens during rumspringa?
We don't want to talk about it. What happens in rumspringa stays there.Ever see a group of teens during rumspringa?
The Spout Spring Hollow Amish don’t do rumspringa.Ever see a group of teens during rumspringa?
I do about a hundred things an hour that if my friend did them, would be an offense at his Last Judgement.
But basically he and I both are Anababtists, only my ancestors were Celts from Scotland and his Germanic.
He’s never tasted a sip of alcohol his entire life, he never will, and he won’t miss it. He’s not smoked or chewed, either.
I bought his $14 belt, and watched him work it on his vice to my length. I tried it on for size, and it was perfect.
But I took it off to visit the graves of my ancestors in Plum Grove Cemetery.
Campbellite mothers, and later wives, select, buy, and launder every stitch of clothing you wear, and so do Amish mothers and wives. Men only select hats, belts, and shoes.
My Mama isn’t buried deep enough for me to risk her seeing me with a cheap belt on.
I wonder, if the master carvers in Turkey smoke meerschaum pipes, themselves?
They were likely raised from the cradle as Muslims, who for the most part eschew alcohol, tobacco, and excessive ornamentation.
But Jack Daniels was, and maybe still is, made in a dry county.
Somebody in Turkey had to carve my claw and egg pipe, and he did a wonderful job of it. But did he know that meerschaum block would be almost impossible to color?
I bought that pipe for myself in December 1979 when I finished my undergraduate degree.
It’s a wonderful smoker, but the grade of meerschaum used doesn’t color very fast, you know?
They were likely raised from the cradle as Muslims, who for the most part eschew alcohol, tobacco, and excessive ornamentation.
But Jack Daniels was, and maybe still is, made in a dry county.
Somebody in Turkey had to carve my claw and egg pipe, and he did a wonderful job of it. But did he know that meerschaum block would be almost impossible to color?
I bought that pipe for myself in December 1979 when I finished my undergraduate degree.
It’s a wonderful smoker, but the grade of meerschaum used doesn’t color very fast, you know?
I'd say it's just block specific regardless of grade. I've ran over 100 smokes through this fellow, and it's barely getting a tint to it.
Fikri Baki
I know Mustafa at Astas does too.
I've got a photo of Kenan somewhere with a pipe but can't seem to find it.
Ya, that pipe of Fikri's on the right is probably my all-time favorite meerschaum. Such great depth of color and character.
I'm still not entirely certain that the bottom wasn't precolored like those meerschaums of the 1800s.
My other obsession besides pipes is shotguns, and due to the spectacular decline in the value of the Turkish lira against the United States dollar, and the fact Turkish walnut grows in abundance in Turkey, for the last few years indescribably nice Turkish autoloaders have sold new for prices not seen in fifty years here in America.
This is because the Turkish leader refuses to allow an independent central bank control over interest rates, like the other Western democracies Turkey trades with have done for up to a century.
For example, the last inflation reading in Turkey was 84% and the central bank rate was 9%.
Foreign hard currencies like the dollar, pound and euro are like gold in Turkey, especially the US dollar.
I’ve been wanting a thousand dollar grade meerschaum for over thirty years.
Now, before Turkey inevitably quits killing it’s own currency, ought to be a good time to buy a premium meerschaum.
This is because the Turkish leader refuses to allow an independent central bank control over interest rates, like the other Western democracies Turkey trades with have done for up to a century.
For example, the last inflation reading in Turkey was 84% and the central bank rate was 9%.
Foreign hard currencies like the dollar, pound and euro are like gold in Turkey, especially the US dollar.
I’ve been wanting a thousand dollar grade meerschaum for over thirty years.
Now, before Turkey inevitably quits killing it’s own currency, ought to be a good time to buy a premium meerschaum.
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So happy you are giving the lattice a go. That little beauty is off to a great start.
As someone who regularly smokes meerschaums with both tenon types (the briar style and the screwed in push-pull), I don’t understand the obsession with the briar-style tenons. Both tenons smoke equally well in my opinion and I’d imagine that since the screw in ones are more modular that they’ll stand up better to the test of time as they’re easily replaced. Aren’t the briar-style ones permanently affixed or am I mistaken?
My pipe in this thread, with the affixed tenon (which I believe the stem is one solid piece of acrylic) Has better air flow than the screwed in style. I also feel safer, in the sense like this is a system that CANNOT fall out. But I love my meers with the screw style tenons as well. I'm sure most of this is all in my head.
My Altinay on the left here has the same style fitting as yours and my AGovem on the right has the screw in push-pull. Does the altinay have a more open airflow? Yes. Does it smoke better than the AGovem? No. They both smoke incredibly well I just pack the AGovem slightly lighter. Since I only have one pipes of each tenon-style my opinion is purely anecdotal as I don’t have a large enough sample size. Others would have to chime in. This is just my experience with my two pipes.