Meer Conundrum
- Thread starter MRW
- Start date
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Reverse calabash? I suppose it could be. Never thought of this Altinay in that way though.
I’ve got a couple meers I just enjoy looking at that I’ll never smoke. It just meant buying another meer to smoke and enjoy the coloring. A win-win.
That's a beautiful pipe, so I can see why you're having a difficult time deciding on whether to smoke it or not. I have a couple meerschaums that I haven't smoked for various reasons. My Tekin Lion and Claw meer sat for about two years before I finally decided to smoke it. It's such a great looking pipe, but I figured as nice as it looked unsmoked, it would look just as good or better with some nice coloring.
Enjoy coloring your other pipe, and may it bring you many happy smokes.
Enjoy coloring your other pipe, and may it bring you many happy smokes.
H
HRPufnstuf
Guest
MRW and CE in both cases I feel your pipes were meant to be smoked, that they want to be smoked. They are both outstanding pipes; perhaps an appropriate occasion to smoke them will present itself to each of you one day.
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Nah, I've got several pipes both meerschaum and briar that I'll never smoke plus that chalky meerschaum break in period is dreadful. I've spent the last 33 years sorting through keepers and duds to a point that I have those that I regularly smoke. With more than a lifetime's worth of tobacco in the closet, sometimes I just buy pipes as display pieces as they were just meant as an income source to the carver and objects to be enjoyed however their buyers deem. I often find myself wishing that I had never smoked my giant Kenan skull.
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I believe the fat stem part is indeed a second chamber. The stem is fixed, meaning it cannot be removed as with all other pipes. Is the fixed stem an indicator of the pipe being a reverse calabash?
Just work the stem back and forth to remove it. Twisting a tight one may remove the silver ferrule.
Some of the meerschaum carvers aren't even smokers and have collections of unsmoked meerschaums themselves. A pipe is meant to be enjoyed by the owner either smoked or not. Just got an M. Cinar bent egg that may never be smoked.
H
HRPufnstuf
Guest
While I happen to hold the same personal opinion of meerschaums as proteus, the choice to smoke one rather than display it is as personal a choice as the tobaccos we choose. I don't mean to sit on the fence, I would definitely smoke these pipes, but I see their innate artistic merit as well.
Most of my unsmoked pieces were unsmoked estate purchases. They could've potentially gone through several collections as simply display pieces. Some meerschaums unfortunately color badly and were much more attractive prior to smoking while some refuse to color after hundreds of smokes.
H
HRPufnstuf
Guest
I understand, my own figure meerschaum has been smoked countless times over 25 years and has very little colouration, more likely from handling than from smoking.
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Yes many pipes are just art. In another thread I posted about pipe types.
The ones you buy to smoke and ones you buy to put in a shelf and admire. An unfinished painting is very much admirable.
And that's the difference with a pipe. The pipe is finished and all pipes color from smoking it's just less noticeable when they are stained. Many of the antique meerschaums that people praise for coloring were actually precolored by their carvers with an ox blood stain.
Wow I didn't know that. I love the coloring vs plain white. Brings out more shading and depth and character.