Hilson had a line of Fantasia pipes that were meerschaum pipes with a bakelite shell. I collect these, and they are all great good smokers. Nowhere in the pipe does the smoke come into contact with the bakelite, and they smoke cool enough with the thick meerschaum insulation that they never get warm.
That said, I do not smoke the Fantasias very often, as I consider them just objects of my collection... and the actual chambers are tiny. But, if I were going to smoke them, I would make sure that the meer bowl inside was not wallowed out from over reaming, nor cracked at all.
My briar Hilsons, however, get smoked constantly.
