Meerschaum Colouring Unusually

[mso489]

I don't have experience with Meers, but unfinished briar pipes require years of patience. You just let them do it. Don't add any wax or polish. Eventually they look deeply finished, like antique furniture.

 

[sleepy57]

my new meer is colouring strangely.
After 20 bowls I decided to give it a waxing,
I have been using the old coin in the bottom of the bowl trick,but when waxed instead of bringing out a little colour in the stem and lower bowl the top changed colour and the stem /lower bowl nothing.
I realise it is very early but this seems backwards to what I was lead to expect.View attachment 87443

 

[sleepy57]

Hi, Pipe looks great!....what is the coin trick?

 

[paulfg]

Hi, Pipe looks great!....what is the coin trick?

placing a coin with some holes drilled in it or philpad in the bottom of the chamber creating an airspace below the tobacco where the smoke can condense is supposed to aid colouring of the bottom of the bowl.

So far i have smoked close to 100 bowls in the pipe and the shank is just starting to colour near the mouthpiece,

 

[sleepy57]

placing a coin with some holes drilled in it or philpad in the bottom of the chamber creating an airspace below the tobacco where the smoke can condense is supposed to aid colouring of the bottom of the bowl.

So far i have smoked close to 100 bowls in the pipe and the shank is just starting to colour near the mouthpiece,

Thank you for the info!

 

[jerry]

Every meerschaum colors in its own way. That, to me, is part of the fun of smoking them! It's like Mr. Gump's box of chocolates.

 

[condorlover1]

Forest: 'Would you like a chocolate?"

Person on Bench "Piss off I m a diabetic".

 

[stewartu]

Its coloring beautifully! This is exactly what you want to see.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

placing a coin with some holes drilled in it or philpad in the bottom of the chamber creating an airspace below the tobacco where the smoke can condense is supposed to aid colouring of the bottom of the bowl.

So far i have smoked close to 100 bowls in the pipe and the shank is just starting to colour near the mouthpiece,

I don't really wax my meerschaum and after two years of being very heavy in my rotation (it's probably the one I reach for first when I want a bowl) it's only just picking up a very light cream color all around with some darker marks on the stem

Kinda tricky getting the color to look right in pictures, but this kinda illustrates the idea I hope.

And back to the original question, I think your meershaum is coloring just beautifully. You'll be able to (with years of work) get it to a black/dark brown look and I bet it'll have a black leopard print feel to it. I've seen some 60-80+ year old meerschaums that have this depth of color/pattern that's really mesmerizing.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

This IMP has over 300 bowls smoked in a year and a half. Not coloring as much as I'd hoped it would but it smokes nice.



This Altinay has over 200 bowls and is coloring a bit faster but still not anything to write home about. Doesn't matter, Smokes good and I assume somewhere down the road they'll get rather dark. Or not.

 

[HopHand]

I'm just a Newbie myself but it really seems like 20 bowls is pretty early to start stressing yourself over it. At that point I'm still trying to get to know the pipe Enoughr to decide if I even really like her and very much still learning her quirks, deciding what type of tobaccos she likes and the mood/moments she's best suited for. Finding those places that need the most cleaning, if and how often she will need a pipe cleaner degurggling and other such get to know Ya's.
And while being a newbie yes that might take me a bit longer then some of these white hats. I don't see how 20 bowls is worth fretting over especially fretting over her looks?‍ Seems a bit of an injustice really.