How to Avoid Bad Coloration?

[UrsaMinor]

Hi everyone. I want to buy a meerschaum in the $150-$250 range, but some meers seem to color better than others.


The first picture is from another website - it shows a really ugly, rotten coloration, in my opinion.





The next pic is from this forum. It shows a really nice, even coloration which I like.



Is this due to a difference in quality of the mineral itself? Smoking technique? Overuse? Or maybe the thickness of the bowl?
If the first picture is the fate of all meers, I might just stick to briar.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's interesting... when I first started smoking, the main reason to get a meer was that it didn't impart a flavor. Now, they are like the DIY tie dye tshirts of the pipe world.

 

[warren]

It's a mineral, keep it clean, it'll start to color, might mottle but, when it's full of tobacco residues it should be varying shaded of mahogany. No guarantees though. If you are smoking for looks ... stick with the dead wood.

 

[UrsaMinor]

@cosmicfolklore
They are supposedly more durable than briars and require less care. That's my main reason for wanting one. But if they eventually start to look like they were dragged through the mud, it's hard to justify the cost.

@warren
Looks are part of it, I suppose. I guess I need to do more resarch.

 

[anotherbob]

luck of the draw. Mainly.

 

[dunnyboy]

@UrsaMinor, I believe most meerschaums color gradually from the stem upwards towards the rim of the bowl. Most don't color very much beyond the middle of the bowl. I think it's unlikely you're going to get the uniformity you're hoping for but you might still like the way it looks.

 

[anotherbob]

@UrsaMinor, I believe most meerschaums color gradually from the stem upwards towards the rim of the bowl. Most don't color very much beyond the middle of the bowl. I think it's unlikely you're going to get the uniformity you're hoping for but you might still like the way it looks.

the solution is to smoke the pipe extensively that seems like the way to get an even dark coloration.

 

[rustiepyles]

Its a natural substance, they all color a little differently. It also depends on how often you smoke it, what you smoke, how dense the meer is. In general, they color how they color. You have about as much control over it as you do the weather. It takes a LOT of smoking to get one to color anything like that dark.

 

[craig61a]

As far as being more durable and requiring less care, not sure what you’re hinting at. The material itself is somewhat fragile, and can easily crack with mishandling. I wipe my Meers chambers after smoking with a paper towel to prevent excessive build up.

Meerschaum is a natural mineral material and how the oils and tars permeate is varied. It’s not like it’s a perfectly ordered crystalline structure.

In any case deep coloring of the material takes years or decades in many cases.

 

[mso489]

Most Meers I've seen develop a nice mellow color over time, but more often than not, a bit uneven. I've been more impressed with the coloration of unfinished briar pipes. At least two of my oldest examples in this category have not only colored but developed a smooth polished finish that looks stained and maybe waxed, with none of that having been applied. It takes a long time, but it happened over a decade or two.

 

[rustiepyles]

@cosmicfolklore
They are supposedly more durable than briars and require less care. That's my main reason for wanting one. But if they eventually start to look like they were dragged through the mud, it's hard to justify the cost.

I have not found that to be the case, meers take a lot more care and attention. Constant cleaning, scraping, delicate handling. Meers are prone to cracking, briars are not.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Paging @condorlover1 to assess the coloration.

 

[bullet08]

Try spray painting? Don't have to worry about natural patina from tobacco juice that way..

 

[rustiepyles]

Paging @condorlover1 to assess the coloration.

I wonder how he might describe the color of the first pipe?

 

[kcghost]

I generally think that meers coloring depends on who doing the smoking. If @Chasing Embers is doing it the pipe will color in a reasonable time. If it is me, then there is little hope of any coloring taking place,

 

[OzPiper]

@cosmicfolklore
They are supposedly more durable than briars and require less care. That's my main reason for wanting one. But if they eventually start to look like they were dragged through the mud, it's hard to justify the cost.

@warren
Looks are part of it, I suppose. I guess I need to do more resarch.

You might want do do a bit more research before dipping your toes in the water.

They ARE NOT more durable than briar. In fact they are more fragile
African/Tanganyikan meerschaum is more robust than Turkish meerschaum
The African/Tanganyikan meers come pre-coloured because they have more mineral content and are rarely a pristine white
The African mines have closed down, so you will have to get an estate. Unsmoked NOS ones come up for sale from time to time

All Turkish meers will go through a mottled appearance and it may takes hundreds or thousands of bowls before you get to a "nicely coloured" state.
The rate of colouration varies a lot from pipe to pipe

If you do not like the "in-between" look, then buy an African/Tanganyikan or an ox-blood meer.
Or an estate that has been coloured to your liking.
Like me

 

[LeafErikson]

If regularly smoked, all pipes require care. Meers can be loaded one bowl after another a bit easier than briar as they absorb more moisture. On the other hand, reaming them is harder than a briar as you have to take it slow and use a blunt tool as opposed to a typical reamer. It’s nigh on impossible to predict how a meer will color from what I understand, but I’m no expert.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Relying on random photos is not going to work. Even when the photographer is honest, you can't be sure of the color in a photograph.
The top pipe may be a result of long bad handling, with a lot of the "coloring" being build up from dirty hands.

 

[condorlover1]

Pipes color at different speeds. Certain tobacco blends which have a high level of moisture seems to colored older meerschaum pipes quite quickly. Brown twist, Black XX twist and certain Gawith plugs seem to be highly predictable in the colors it will impart to the pipe. The first pipe in the post is fairly atypical of what will happen if smoked heavily. It is true all of mine have turned a 'turd brown' color but that seems to be par for the course with 19th century meerschaums. YMMV.

 

[AJL67]

When I purchase my Meer pipes i be sure to message the seller and request that it be a 5 or better on the absorption scale, really works out and gives you a more even coloration, the higher the number on the A.S. the more even and faster the color.