Meerschaum Assistance Needed

[fnord]

I picked up the pipe below at an antique shop over a month ago for six bucks. It has "Block Meerschaum" printed on the shank cap. I scrubbed up the pipe stem and swabbed out the airhole. And I lightly scraped out the leftover tobacco remaints in the bowl.

My problem is that the previous owner smoked vanilla flavored tobacco in this burner and I can't get rid of the ghost. I've pushed some pretty heavy lat blends through this pipe and the vanilla aroma still hangs around.
I understand salt and alcohol treatments on Meerschaums are a no-no so that also rules a retort. Does anybody have any ideas? I'd be grateful for some opinions.
Thanks.
Fnord

 

[pstlpkr]

My suggestion would be to continue smoking what you like in it.

The ghost should eventually dissipate.

IMHO

 

[trailspike48]

Great use of six buck, nice pipe.

 

[gwtwdbss]

Great suggestions by Lawrence and Roth. I have nothing else to add but that is a beautiful $6 pipe. Congratulations!

 

[amiller]

I'd just add that I drill out almost all my pipes to open the smoke hole and recently was gifted an old meerschaum that looked great and smoked terrible. I was able to drill it out easily and smokes like a million bucks now.
I would suggest PA for a few bowls or like they've said with CH. also consider I found my meerschaum acrylic stem had some nasty flavors that needed to be soaked out. You might be noticing some of that,and the stem can still be alcohol wiped.

 

[sergemoat]

Walker's briar works offers an "Ozone" cleaning. I've never used that service but it sounds interesting and might be suitable for a meer.

 

[thesmokindragon]

+1 w/Roth, Good 'ol Burley blends are Ghost Killer Kings

 

[keith929]

I have used the Everclear and cotton ball treatment on my African block meers with no ill effects.

The no alcohol rule I believe applies to Turkish(white) meerschaum. The block meers are much less porous so the bowl can be sanitized without doing any harm.
That is a great looking meer. It looks like a Pioneer. Good find!

 

[cortezattic]

From a PipesMagazine.com article by Fred Bass, The Thrill of the Hunt (A Guide to Estate Meerschaums)...

Cleaning of the Estate Pipe should always include removing the cake, down to the Block. The use of Everclear,

a shank brush and plenty of Pipe cleaners is required before the first smoke and after every smoke,

as the Pipe flushes itself of the ghosts of previous use. Routine cleaning after every smoke will result in a clarity

of the smoking experience unequaled by other materials used for Pipe construction.

Go to Smokers' Forum and search for "ghost meerschaum" for related stuff.

 

[cortezattic]

The process of dissolving things in liquids can be tricky and a little counter-intuitive.

For example, water will make meerschaum soft like soap, or so I read. It also dissolves salt readily.

OTOH salt will not dissolve in alcohol. So maybe alcohol will not soften meerschaum after all. I dunno.
I have no experience in these matters, so I merely quoted Fred Bass. His advice is as good as gold in my book.

 

[topd]

The only thing I would use to get a ghost out of meerschaum is tobacco.... smoke it! Smoke the type tobacco

you like and stay with it. The ghost will leave eventually.
I believe Fred's take on using Everclear in initial cleaning when buying an estate meer is spot on. But

he stresses just dampening a cotton rag for wiping the surface, he never said Soaking the pipe in it.

Read the entire paragraph...
The ghost is all the way into the stone's porous body, from inside surface to outside. Wiping the

surface with Everclear or even dampening a few pipe cleaners will never get the ghost out. Smoking

is the one and only way.

 

[tbradsim1]

Top is the Expert, follow his advice and you won" t go wrong.

 

[fnord]

Guys:
Whoa, Nelly.
I guess you've asked a headscratcher when the heavies weigh in.
Agreed, Bradley. I was going to noodle through my saved PMs tonight and send a link of this post to Top. I've seen pix of his Meers and figured he'd have some sound advice.
But, that said, I mean no disrespect to you, Keith. (I know how much you enjoy your Meers.) And, Cortez, thank you for taking the time to do some research on my behalf. Roth, you're rock solid as always and while I don't always agree with you there's nobody who accepts the give and take any better.
All that said, I'll bash the hell out of this pipe with burley for the next few weeks and then pack it off to Walker's for an ozone treatment if there's no improvement. Here's another wrinkle though. At the same shop, and they were side by side, I also picked up a lovely Jobey Pinch that has the same-same overall shape as my Meer although the bowl is slightly cantilevered. (In their day, Jobeys were really something before the brand started getting passed around like a used Kleenex.)
It was also a six buck burner but is easily more elegant than any other pipe in my collection. I'm not an elegant guy but I can sure appreciate a good pipe and this one burned the same damned vanilla tobacco as the Meer! It's been through two heavy duty S&A treatments and my redheaded bride still smells the McCormick vanilla she uses for cooking.
If the weather holds, I'll try a retort tomorrow night but I'm not hopeful. This one will probably be another Walker ozone hopeful.
Thanks for the feedback, everybody.
Fnord

 

[fnord]

I was packing these pipes up to send to Walker for the ozone treatment when my wife reminded me that we have an ozone purifier on a garage shelf.
I placed the device in the smallest room in the house - basement bathroom - set my pipes up in front of the fan and shut the door. Five hours later the pipes were reborn. No ghost. Nothing. Just a couple of odor neutral burners.
Fnord

 

[tbradsim1]

Way to go Jim, I have one too and I am gonna file that in my Dead Head File , cause sometimes that file doesn"t work LOL

 

[gronksdad]

Usually 3 or 4 bowls of PA works for me.