Meerschaum cleaning hot water rinse?

[Milleniumsmoker]

Hello Everyone,

I just bought an IMP Meerschaum pipe, it's quite nice. I have been doing the hot water rinse for my briar pipes. I am assuming this is not a good idea for the Meerschaum since the store owner told me not to get the pipe wet. Is that true?

Should I also avoid smoking the Meerschaum when it's raining? It's my first Meerschaum so I don't want to take any chances.

If the water rinse won't work, if you all have some suggestions on how to clean it, that would be great. Thanks!

https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/th...haum is one of the,is what color's your pipe.​

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I don't rinse after every smoke but I have rinsed my Meers a few times with no negative affects that I could see. I find it amusing that people burn tobacco in a device for an hour or more with no damage but think the device is fragile and running water through it for 30 seconds is going to ruin it.

 

[didimauw]

I do it on my one meer. The only reason I haven't rinsed my other two, is that they are still newer and don't need it yet. No negative effects.

 

[Casual]

I do it on my Altinay pipes. No troubles at all so far.

 

[condorlover1]

Some genius on here once suggested that you put them in a dish washer!

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

That's what I suspected, but I figured better be safe than sorry. I prefer briar pipes but at the moment this was my best option so I can smoke multiple bowls per day without worrying about burning the briar out or souring the pipe.

As an aside, I just tried squadron leader for the first time. I read a review that said it didn't have a strong taste, but I felt it was pretty hefty. Maybe It's just that I haven't smoked a pipe in awhile lol

 

[Chasing Embers]

smoke multiple bowls per day without worrying about burning the briar out or souring the pipe.

Total myth and marketing gimmick. I smoke the same pipe multiple times per day for weeks at time, cleaning after each smoke with pipe cleaners and paper towels, have done so for thirty years and even my oldest pipes look new and have never soured.

 

[condorlover1]

Same here

 

[warren]

the store owner told me not to get the pipe wet.

He was an unifr0omed vendor. I would doubt any of his other observations.

 

[warren]

Uninformed! I realy shouldn't sit down at the keyboard until I've had at least one morning cuppa.

 

[anotherbob]

Total myth and marketing gimmick. I smoke the same pipe multiple times per day for weeks at time, cleaning after each smoke with pipe cleaners and paper towels, have done so for thirty years and even my oldest pipes look new and have never soured.

Yes. I find a pipe will sour pretty fast if it's not cleaned. Or smoked wet. Which even if that happens no big deal just means a deep cleaning is needed.

 

[anotherbob]

Uninformed! I realy shouldn't sit down at the keyboard until I've had at least one morning cuppa.

me too.
From what I can tell most pipe "rules" seem to work on the man child style of rules. The I know you're not going to follow the rules so going to extreme. A meer should not soak in water so the rule is don't let it touch a drop. They know if they say rain is fine some idiot will take it for a long swim.

 

[HopHand]

The first week I was smoking I picked up my Meerschaum afraid my bird would knock it over being silly.
Just so happened to have an almost imperceptible amount of sulphur on my hand from the nights spraying.
Picked the pipe up the next morning and touched off a bowl. The taste left me bent over a trash can vomiting.
That pipe from that moment on tasted of sulphur so badly everytime the flame touched it that in the end I just tossed it after dozens of unfinished bowls due to that sulphur taste.
I would be very worried after that experience that the cleaning water or any other liquid might get absorbed into the pipe ruining it.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I just wipe the bowl with a piece of tissue and occasionally use a q tip with high strength vodka.
I know they soak the blocks of meerschaum to make it soft for carving but I wouldn't have thought a 30 second rinse would do any damage.
I've read you shouldn't allow pressed meerschaum near water but your pipe isn't made of that.

 

[64alex]

As long as you dry with a soft clot after water rinse you'll be fine, I had no problem doing so. I would just not leaving the meer wet after rinsing as the water could be absorbed and swell the meer. That's it.

 

[brian64]

It's not enough for the water boys to douse briar, now its meers. What about cobs? mountain laurel? bamboo? metal? Why stop now? Why ever stop? No medium should be declared off limits, especially as the benefits of water were discussed as far back as the dawn of language 35,000 years ago. Recorded history starts at 3000 BCE, but an insider's viewpoint reveals that water was used to flush out early stone tools, and if such first tools, the case becomes all the stronger for all pipe mediums of past and future. Water! water, you're good with water!

 

[saltedplug]

Now as the video indicates, extolling the benefits of cool water, as used by the 4-Flusher boys, would appear to have immediate benefits, chiefly in keeping them out of hot water, which, if applied incorrectly, has been known to produce a disintegrative effect to meer and softer briar. The problem with this is that the damage has been done before the discrimination can be made that this piece will not so prosper.

As you know I am big, very big, on water. But I would be remiss if I didn't warn you that some briar will turn into goo right in your hands when subjected to its variable effects.

 

[saltedplug]

In fact water zealots, to obtain maximal flush, stand at the bottom of Grand Coulee damn, holding the pipe out into the flow. SP is organizing a trip to the damn sometime before the Jan. 1.

 

[saltedplug]

A recent edition of the Zurich Exterminator's Gazette reports that entire collections of doused briar have been ravaged by termites.

 

[jaytex1969]

Are you arguing with yourself now, Mr. Plug??

I personally see no need to stop with the pipes.

I water rinse all of my tobacco to remove any perceived or imagined applied toxins or pesticides.

Just a few minutes in the salad spinner and it's as dry as a fresh tin of Gawith and ready to go! ?