Meerschaum - Don't Touch?

[metalheadycigarguy]

I always handle my meers, just like my briars. Yes, on a few of them you can tell where I hold them, but that's after years of smoking them. For me those marks are just part of the process and gives character to the pipe.

While it's true your hands have oils on them, I don't believe the oils on a cool-unsmoked pipe impact the pipe the way your oils do on a warm/hot pipe. Now if that pipe was handled multiple times daily over a period of time then you could potentially see some of the oils appear on the pipe.

I've never had a pipe shop not let me handle a meer if I've asked to see it. I also know that if I do handle it, to handle it by the stem. with minimal touch of the meer itself. I also talk to the tobacconist first, and inform them that I'm a collector of meerschaum pipes and have been smoking them for years. Which usually puts the tobacconist at ease that I know how to handle the pipe, and I'm not going to man-handle it or bang it around on the counter. I also only ask to see the meer if I'm really interested in it, otherwise I just look at them through the glass case.

If the shop doesn't want people to touch the meers without assistance from them, then they should be in a glass case or behind the counter.

 

[hakchuma]

After following advice from Bremen piper I just don’t care and I’m glad I don’t too. I Just smoke it and keep the inside of the bowl clean. I’ve even come to no longer care about coloring scratches etc.

I can understand a shop not wanting people to touch the meer pipes they want to sell though.

Bremens pipe video, I imagine the entire pipe world has already seen this but here you go.

 

[dingdong]

it will be pretty darn hard to smoke a pipe without touching the pipe, i bet.
mine gets dirtier and uglier by the day from handling and caressing

 

[bullet08]

That's why there's cobs.