As I posted before I got a Strambach Meer a week ago or so. I had terrible luck getting the worst pipe ever made by man or beast with a sour taste and smell to burnt glue that will turn off pipe smoking anyone.
I email the ebay seller I got it from xerocracy or radica pipes. So far I did not get a response.
I tried with Strambach, here is their reply:
Dear David,
I am really sorry that you have problems with your pipe.
I have been working in the business of making meerschaum pipes and Calabash pipes since 1960. In all this time no one has ever reported such a problem of a glue smell or that the pipe tastes of glu. We have sold thousand of pipes and have never gotten such a feedback. On the photo I saw that the mouthpiece is changed by a black part at the end. Maybe this caused your problem. The second idea is: Meerschaum is a material which readily adsorbs other smells. Maybe you didn`t store your pipe in the paper box but in a place where other smells may have reached your meerschaum pipe. The third idea is to change the tobacco.
Now I am on the end of my ideas, sorry.
********************************
Best regards
KommRätin Edith Corrieri
I email them back:
Hi Robert,
The black part at the end of the mouth piece is just a rubber bite, I have used those on other pipes and never had a problem. The pipe started smelling halfway the first smoke after getting it out of the Strambach case. So I dont think the environment is the problem either. I have smoked DF, FVF and some other tobacco on it. I think there is a plastic "tube" in the shank to make the stem fit on it. I think the problem is either that tube melting or some extra glue (I dont even know if that tube is glued but I m guessing it is) is burning. I had hoped that it will go away but the alcohol cleaning seems to be not working and smoking it right now is so unpleasant ( and I will say unhealthy cause my throat itches all day after) that I dont feel I can smoke through a "breaking in" period to get rid of the glue. Plus as you say the smell will be getting in the material itself.
I dont know if there is a solution but there has to be something to do about it cause I paid 85$ for the pipe.
Thanks for your help and ideas,
David
No reply so far.
Today I convinced myself to give it another go. I had dried up this royal cake to perfection and I put it into the damn thing. A glass of fresh lemonade to stand the glue smell and taste and a book to be able to think about something else. Sitting on my backyard half way down the bowl I tossed the rest of it... I could not take it anymore, so sour, I could taste anything from the tobacco all was glue flavor and now my throat itches like hell. I m done with it. I thinking if I m going to give it away(why would I do that to other fellow smoker!?), throw it to the garbage bin or just shatter it for "fun".
This was a sad story to me and a terrible experience for my first meer.
D
I email the ebay seller I got it from xerocracy or radica pipes. So far I did not get a response.
I tried with Strambach, here is their reply:
Dear David,
I am really sorry that you have problems with your pipe.
I have been working in the business of making meerschaum pipes and Calabash pipes since 1960. In all this time no one has ever reported such a problem of a glue smell or that the pipe tastes of glu. We have sold thousand of pipes and have never gotten such a feedback. On the photo I saw that the mouthpiece is changed by a black part at the end. Maybe this caused your problem. The second idea is: Meerschaum is a material which readily adsorbs other smells. Maybe you didn`t store your pipe in the paper box but in a place where other smells may have reached your meerschaum pipe. The third idea is to change the tobacco.
Now I am on the end of my ideas, sorry.
********************************
Best regards
KommRätin Edith Corrieri
I email them back:
Hi Robert,
The black part at the end of the mouth piece is just a rubber bite, I have used those on other pipes and never had a problem. The pipe started smelling halfway the first smoke after getting it out of the Strambach case. So I dont think the environment is the problem either. I have smoked DF, FVF and some other tobacco on it. I think there is a plastic "tube" in the shank to make the stem fit on it. I think the problem is either that tube melting or some extra glue (I dont even know if that tube is glued but I m guessing it is) is burning. I had hoped that it will go away but the alcohol cleaning seems to be not working and smoking it right now is so unpleasant ( and I will say unhealthy cause my throat itches all day after) that I dont feel I can smoke through a "breaking in" period to get rid of the glue. Plus as you say the smell will be getting in the material itself.
I dont know if there is a solution but there has to be something to do about it cause I paid 85$ for the pipe.
Thanks for your help and ideas,
David
No reply so far.
Today I convinced myself to give it another go. I had dried up this royal cake to perfection and I put it into the damn thing. A glass of fresh lemonade to stand the glue smell and taste and a book to be able to think about something else. Sitting on my backyard half way down the bowl I tossed the rest of it... I could not take it anymore, so sour, I could taste anything from the tobacco all was glue flavor and now my throat itches like hell. I m done with it. I thinking if I m going to give it away(why would I do that to other fellow smoker!?), throw it to the garbage bin or just shatter it for "fun".
This was a sad story to me and a terrible experience for my first meer.
D
