How to Get a Foul Taste out of Meerschaum?

[jhowell]

Place it in a 250 degree oven for 24 - 48 hours...

They used to throw clay pipes (which are much more fragile than meer) into the fire to clean them. Ghosts, foul tastes, or odors are caused by volatiles - heat helps to drive them out...

 

[antonine]

Place it in a 250 degree oven for 24 - 48 hours...

I've done this with cheap clays but I'd be terrified to throw an expensive meer in the oven...

 

[jpmcwjr]

I've done this with cheap clays but I'd be terrified to throw an expensive meer in the oven...

Same here. And we understand that "throw" was not a literal throw. Place carefully is more like it.

Also, deleted some posts not on topic.

 

[hakchuma]

I’m a bit of a brute but I clean my pipe out with a paper towel after each smoke. Every three smokes or so I use a very fine steel mesh sand paper made for fine scale modeling and clean out the bowl. I did pay $275 for the pipe but it’s 5 years old and I’m not intending to get a return on the pipe so I just sand it down inside with out a care in the world. Makes me happier that way.

 

[LeafErikson]

I am also a proponent of the warm water flush on a meer. I did it a few weeks ago to my Tekin pipe.

 

[TakeThisCobAndStuffIt]

The pipe is tougher than you think. I smoke only meer these days ..and in fact the same one all day every day as part of an experiment that I will write up at the end of the year. That said, I ream/scrape mine out every week using a kid's (blunt tip) swiss army knife. Take care to not press too hard and gouge the material. I also have a set of metal ear cleaners that I use to scrape out the shank. After all of this is done a good flush with warm water and buffing the outside with a clean dish towel and the pipe is smooth on the inside, clean on the outside and ready to smoke again for the next week. ..5 bowls a day.

 

[MisterBadger]

I’ve put a few too many “bad bowls” (smoked waaay too hot) through my meer and it has this awful tar , creosote, ash, and graphite like taste to it. I’ve been cleaning the inside of the bowl with a wet paper towel and dry it out followed by a wet pipe cleaner through the shank and stem but the taste persists. Any idea how to clean it up?

I had a similar problem with a Jambo African Meer. Running a couple of pipe cleaners soaked in over-proof Navy Rum cured it.