The older heavily colored ones likely have been smoked thousands of times.
Is a Meerschaum Worth Picking Up?
- Thread starter TheWhale13
- Start date
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1 day i only smoke my pipe 4 times. Give it the max 5 times, 1000 / 5 = 200. Mmmm..... if i use it everyday..... only take 200 days ? . Ok ok..... not up to yearsss ?
Referring to the shank coloring, I just know it doesn't get hot and it doesn't get touched much, if at all, so the color is coming from either magic or tobacco juices traveling that way. If the color were to dissipate through a heat gun being unleashed, where do we assume it's disappeared to? Can't imagine it's too far.
No. I go months without smoking mine and they don't lose much color. Maybe a tiny bit.
It just gets blown around as the wax melts it's surface only.
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Here is the same pipe on the R.H side of the picture third one down taken a few years ago.
I've been torture testing that dublin that I posted as a test subject for meerschaum tolerances. That's why it looks so much different from its siblings all bought just weeks apart from one another.
It takes patience and a sh*t load of Plug or whatever but eventually the pipe will turn either like the one above or if you smoke old ones like myself and use a constrictor plug at the base you will get a similar result. It is all a matter of personal taste as I rotate through my pipes over the course of a month or so. @weezell has a few examples that have turned a truly excellent sh*t brown color through dedicated smoking. Funny as it may seem I have more luck with the stems turning brown then the bowls but your MMV.
As opposed to a not so excellent shit brown color?
@hoosierpipeguy : I have never thought about it in quite those terms! That just made me laugh 
There goes the neighborhood!
Nice pipe! So, are you saying it faded to this color or is this an older picture?
You've gone native. The term is jobbie broun.
@timt The first picture was taken today showing the pipe as it exists today. The second picture featuring many pipes shows the same pipe about four years previously. So it would be an after then before sequence.
@Duck Yes I suppose that would be the correct term. Scottish humor can be so subtle at times. It is one of the things I miss about the old country.
Gotcha. CE and I were having a discussion on pipes fading due to disuse and thought you were proving his point. But I see that's not the case with your pipe here.
The wax coloring does, the meerschaum coloring doesn't. You're not going to get meerschaum coloring until after it's been smoked a few hundred times, that's what Simon was agreeing with.
As long as the wax remains impregnated into the meerschaum, it and it's coloring are part of the pipe. At least in my estimation. Anyway, I still think there could be a little magic involved too. 
I'll have to post a current photo of my skull when I get home from work. I think the last time I smoked it was around Halloween. Likely a lot lighter now. If you want to see what I mean by the warmth coloring the wax, run warm water through a meer and watch what happens. The wax will flash tan and remain so for a few days until all of the moisture evaporates.As long as the wax remains impregnated into the meerschaum, it and it's coloring are part of the pipe. At least in my estimation. Anyway, I still think there could be a little magic involved too.