How Do You Know About Meerschaum?

[quincy]

Sorry. I know there have been tons of postings about meers on here and I really do hate to add one more. However, recently I've been convinced that I'm going to need to add one to my collection. Jerry at my B&M has some. But, I've also been looking online and talking to people I know. One friend has one he loves and one he hates. And as I poke around online I see that I can pay a lot for a well-known carver and not so much for a lesser-known one. How do I know what's good? Do you recommend one? Should I just go to Jerry even though he doesn't have one I'm particularly fond of (Normally, I'm not a "What it looks like" guy but "How it smokes" guy. This seems a bit different.) Is it better to order from a smokingpipes.com or from one of the the specialty meerschaum sites? All I know is to NOT order from Storient if I actually want the pipe I paid for. I learned that from horror stories on here. Any advice would be awesome...

 

[teufelhund]

Just make sure that you like the pipe design and that it's carved from solid block for starters and not pressed from dust and fragments. Second if you can see it in person just look at the quality of the carving check it structurally to see if it has any weak looking areas. The check the pipe portion see if a pipe cleaner passes like any other pipe. Sometimes they are a bit tricky when it comes to bent stems. As far as buying online just make sure its from a reputable dealer or carver they should advertise as solid block and have lots of camera angles for viewing. Good luck.

 

[voorhees]

I have one of those dreaded Storient pipes. LOL! Outside of the bad customer service, I received a great pipe. As most will say, buy only block meerschaum and get it from a reputable stateside dealer or the meerschaumstore.com (new vendor here).

Hopefully you will find a nice one to your taste.
Good Luck,

Jason

 

[dnietosi]

Do not get a Strambach!

 

[simnettpratt]

Plus meeschaumstore.com has plenty starting at $39, and a lot at $99.

 

[andrew]

Get a block meershaum, it costs alot more but it breathes and stuff which makes it more desirable. I have pressed meershaum though and I like it just fine.

 

[quincy]

meerschaum store is out of almost everything I liked!

 

[meerqueen]

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[meerqueen]

Dear Quincy,
as meerschaumstore.com we will be adding more pipes in June.I hope you will finding the pipe that you like.Also the custom orders are also possible.If you can not find what you are looking for just drop us a message so we can see what we can do ..
Regards,

B.B

 

[foggymountain]

Do not buy from the Turkish dealers. There have been many problems with them. Get a Peterson if you can afford it; they are the best I have tried. Watch out for poor plumbing: narrow draft hole, flimsy teflon tenon. Make sure you can get a pipecleaner through it without removing the stem. Don't buy it if you don't like the look of it. You might have your meerschaum for 50 years. If it is too cheap it will either be inferior meerschaum or a composite.

 

[quincy]

So, it sounds like my best option is to really just get one from my B&M. Nothing like being able to touch and feel and tell exactly what I'm getting. Besides, I would rather give them my $$ than anyone else...

 

[quincy]

They don't seem terribly easy to find either... Sigh. The journey begins.

 

[05venturer]

Now you have me looking at more pipes!!! I feel a PAD coming on in the very near future. Never smoked a meer yet.

 

[brian64]

My two cents: If it's within your price range, consider a Baki. You can't get a better meer, imo. And it's a U.S. distributor who provides great customer service in my experience.
http://bestmeerschaums.homestead.com/bakipipes.html

 

[jerry]

I agree with brian64. Baki Meerschaums are excellent, and Deniz is a fine fellow to do business with. I own five Baki's and they are my favorite Meerschaums. By the way, I ONLY smoke Meerschaums.

 

[eaglerico]

Quincy,
A point no one has touched on yet, make sure it has a push/pull tenon and not a threaded tenon. The threaded tenons have a tendency to come lose over time or get stripped out. This is not something that can be easily fixed.
Also, I would try all our site sponsors first. Send them emails asking about dimensions, weight and whatever other criteria you can think of. I have not ordered from meerschaumstore.com yet, but even before they were a site sponsor I was looking at their pipes as I do feel their prices are very good and I was amazed at the variety they offered. I went from not knowing what I wanted to being unable to narrow it down to just one.
One of the drawbacks on buying a meer online is you can't get an exact feel of the scale of the pipe. There are many stories of people who get a meer in only to find it much smaller / bigger then they thought it was. For this you need to measure some of your current pipes and see how they measure up to what you want out of a meer pipe.
When I had my meer itch I went to eBay trying to find a steal. I found quite a few. I got burnt on a couple, but it was more because the seller was uneducated on pipes in general and not trying to dupe me. On the plus side, I got a few really excellent pipes that I cherish. It is certainly a Risk / Reward game.
Remember too, if you buy from one of the site sponsors, as long as you haven't smoked it yet, most of the time, our sponsors will work with you to get you something you do like.

 

[meerqueen]

Hi,
Where are Peterson meerschaum Pipes made?
All peterson pipes were going from Turkey.So if the peterson meerschaum pipes are good so this means that there are good manufacturers and businesses in Turkey

you need to find them

Regards,

B.B