Noticed this the other night, or maybe a month ago, who can remember. What i noticed was this meer is coloring more where i don’t hold it.
Top pic is how i hold this meer.
Top pic is how i hold this meer.
How Do You Hold a Meer?
- Thread starter AJL67
- Start date
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I hold my pipes right where yours is coloring and my meer is coloring. I doubt handling has much of an effect. I think that's just how they color no matter where you put your hands.
Just thought it was interesting, so many people worry about dirty fingers / oils etc,. darkening their meerschaums and this is exactly the opposite.
I hold mine similar to what you do. If you smoke it long enough, I'm guessing oils and grime from your hands will add to the coloring. I don't think that is what is happening with yours though. I think you'd look good with some white gloves to wear while smoking your Meers.
Congratulations, you've discovered that meers color both from the inside and outside. Move that finger around!
A Portland Pipe Club member demonstrated the effect by building a perspex box where he could keep his meer and into which he could blow smoke. The meer colored very nicely. @romaso, do you remember Alex doing this?
A Portland Pipe Club member demonstrated the effect by building a perspex box where he could keep his meer and into which he could blow smoke. The meer colored very nicely. @romaso, do you remember Alex doing this?
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My Altinay has gotten darker from skin oils where I hold it, and hasn't really reached that spot with tobacco oils yet. Only time will tell.
Dirty, oily hands will indeed color the outer shell of a meerschaum. The old cotton glove trick isn't fiction. Me? I keep my hands off the bowl and stem unless they are recently washed. But, that's the way I was raised. If coloring is a goal, I'd stick with holding the bit, cleans fingers, even a glove. If it's simply a byproduct of enjoying such a pipe, worry less and smoke more. Dirt and oils are generally only on the surface of a properly coated bowl. My old meerschaums still have the original wax compound coating and are all doing well. Can't speak for meerschaums being sold today, don't own any.
See exactly opposite of what's happening with mine.
Just a suggestion, have you thought about washing your hands once in awhile? BAZINGA
I've smoked my meerschaums for 4 decades. I have found that the type of tobacco matters as well. Oily, tar-laden tobaccos in my experience have a better chance of moving the coloring process along than say BCA. Hand placement? Not sure it impacts internal coloring all that much.
Gawith and Hoggarth rope, flake, and plug tobaccos are especially oily. Those are my go to oily tobaccos.
I have many things to say.
However I'll just show this picture. The lattice is where my fingers go. And I guess looking at it now, the coloring is making it's way up there. But the lattice has looked like this, pinkish, for a month at least.
I hold mine like any other pipe. I wash my hands when I need to like any normal person. I do not go out of my way to wash my hands to smoke my meerschaum.
First off, hold your pipe the way you want to hold your pipe. It's yours. I handle mine just like my briars. Just make sure your hands are free of dirt and grease etc. That doesn't mean you need to wash your hands every time you smoke a meerschaum, but I wouldn't recommend picking up your pipe after doing yardwork or working on your car without giving the hands a good wash. 
The majority of meerschaum pipes begin coloring around the shank or bottom of the bowl first. From there the coloring will work it's way up the bowl. If you look at just about any meerschaum collection you'll see this. The way you're holding your pipe has nothing to do with it not coloring there. From what I can see the pipe is coloring well, and working its way up the bowl from the shank like it should. In many cases the oils from your hand can help with the coloring process, though some say it's artificial color and not true color as it didn't come from the tobacco. Either way it's color on the pipe.
The majority of meerschaum pipes begin coloring around the shank or bottom of the bowl first. From there the coloring will work it's way up the bowl. If you look at just about any meerschaum collection you'll see this. The way you're holding your pipe has nothing to do with it not coloring there. From what I can see the pipe is coloring well, and working its way up the bowl from the shank like it should. In many cases the oils from your hand can help with the coloring process, though some say it's artificial color and not true color as it didn't come from the tobacco. Either way it's color on the pipe.
So with your gums then
