Very nice. In my experience the uniform coloring like that is very unusual, regardless of brand.
My Astas Meerschaum Progression
- Thread starter didimauw
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Probably the color is just from it heating up right? My meer did not stay completely white very long, but took a 100 smokes to see true color.
I guess it comes from the same folks that are still clutching their wives tales by the ovaries. Probably the same bunch that think alcohol will hurt meerschaum.Actually that is quite true. An occasional scrape of the bowl and a feather down the stem and you are all good. As to the pipe I really couldn't comment.
SPC uses denatured alcohol with a retort to clean estates. Makes me think the alcohol destroys stems belief may just be more pipe myth.
Yeah, maybe. My concerns are just concerned about alcohol + acrylic, which seems to be bad for the plastic, which you can read about online. Still I really don't think that it would hurt the stem to do it once in a while.
Just like every other pipe myth that is vehemently supported.
True, but scientific knowledge is something that can be trusted. Unless someone here can come with evidence that alcohol does not cause damage to acrylic, then the contrary can be vehemently supported.
Definitely not a myth, 100% fact. Alcohol causes micro fractures in acrylic. I’ve seen it happen in real time. There are acrylics of varying base component blend ratios so different acrylic are affected by alcohol to varying degrees. But it is scientific fact that alcohol is bad for acrylic.
This was a brand new stem that I had just finished cutting, it had a nice bright, shiny, clean, and polished bore. I ran one alcohol soaked pipe cleaner through it to clean out the swarf and polishing compound before I smoked it. And this is what I was left with. A badly micro fractured bore.
Not even touching that one.
Just ran 91% through this one. Still has the same bore marks with no clouding or fractures. May be the quality or formulation of the material.
Like I mentioned above, SPC has been using denatured for many years now. Their clear and transparent colored stems look fine.
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Denatured alcohol is what did that
. I don’t use isopropyl alcohol, it’s garbage and full of additives. And yeah like I said, acrylic comes in various formulations. And they are affected by alcohol to varying degrees… But to run some watered down grocery store isopropyl through one stem with an already crappy looking bore and say that is proof that alcohol doesn’t affect acrylic is not scientific. Yes some blends of acrylics are less affected by alcohol, but the only way to find out which one you have is to risk damaging it. 
I personally don’t care what you do to your own pipes. But I’ve seen first hand what alcohol does to acrylic, I won’t use it on my acrylic stems.
You could sell that stem at 200% mark-up to the instagram crowd. They’d go nuts.
Doesn't affect SPC's estates, and I got mine unsmoked from an ebay seller. It has always looked that way.
Nor is presenting one that you damaged when SPC does it regularly.
My no-name fleabay meer is being slow to color, and looked fairly heavily smoked when I got it. I thought it must’ve been a low quality pipe, and now it’s almost splotchy/kinda translucent appearance has me thinking it’s a good one.
Smokes great regardless.
And that Astas is a good looking pipe!
Merry Christmas didi
How would you or anyone know it’s not damaging any of SPC’s estate stems? You can only see the damage when it’s in clear acrylic which probably accounts for less than .0005% of their estate sales.
And to claim that you are 100% sure SPC uses zero discretion when it comes to retorting acrylic stems without any actual firsthand knowledge is probably not very accurate. It’s just as easy to retort a stummel with the stem off of it as to retort one with the stem on. So they can claim they retort 100% of their estate pipes, that doesn’t mean they retort 100% of the stems. Maybe they do, I don’t know. I have no first hand knowledge of their operations.
And yes, you are correct. My single (I do have more) example of an alcohol damaged stem is not prof positive that alcohol will damage every acrylic stem. But I’m also not implying that you should try and see at the risk of damaging your pipe.
Well, that's pretty simple. I've bought several estate meerschaums from them with semi transparent acrylic stems, and I asked.
And they used asbestos in everything for years, that doesn't mean that it's harmless. With all due respect, restorers using alcohol does not necessitate that it is the best product for the job. For ebonite it should be fine though.
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