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...
How to Get a Foul Taste out of Meerschaum?
- Thread starter fishmansf
- Start date
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.I've done this with cheap clays but I'd be terrified to throw an expensive meer in the oven...
Also, deleted some posts not on topic.
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.
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.
I had a similar problem with a Jambo African Meer. Running a couple of pipe cleaners soaked in over-proof Navy Rum cured it.