My Meer is Coloring Very Nicely (Pic Heavy)

[easterntraveler]

Started smoking this Meer at the end of March. It is beginning to develop a nice bronze color. The pipe is now mostly an off white color. The shank has colored the most along with the bottom of the bowl. It's nice brown/bronze color is beginning to wrap around the bowl. It is a Tekin pipe I got from the meerschaumstore.Com. I have smoked
3 tins of Dunhill Royal Yacht

1 Tin of John Aylsbury Luxury flake

1 Tin of Escusdo

8 Flakes of Peter Stokkbye Luxury Bullseye
in it. Let me know what you think.

 

[bigbee]

Beautiful,
your experience also shows the coloring of a meerschaum is best expressed in number of tins or pounds of tobacco instead of number of smokes

 

[blueeyedogre]

That's some good colouring you have going on there.

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

Looks good. I know nothing about meers and do not own one. I've heard that holding the bowl causes the oils from your hand and fingers to negatively affect the coloring process. Is this true?

 

[easterntraveler]

Their are several rumors and urban legends surrounding meerschaums. What I can tell you is I do hold the pipe by the bowl but only with clean hands, however I do not do this often. When it has gotten dirty I just wipe it off with a cloth. I also did not wax the bowl. I have also read that you should smoke it for two weeks then let it rest for one. I do not do this either. I went through two tins of tobacco before letting it rest for three or so days. I started out smoking out of it twice a day everyday. However that was to kick start the coloring process. I use it about once a day now. Hope that helps.

 

[condorlover1]

Here is an example of coloring on an old unsmoked meerschaum. The first picture shows the pipe as I received it about 18 months ago

The second picture shows the same pipe with a replacement stem 18 months later

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

That's a great cutty condorlover1! That pipe makes me want a meerschaum. That knife and plug makes me want to smoke. Did you palm that puppy a lot?

 

[fnord]

Guys:
I know precious little about Meers but I'm curious as to why the darkest coloring has occurred on both shanks.
Any thoughts?
Fnord

 

[jpmcwjr]

Very nice. So, Simon, are you a waxing proponent, opposite, or couldn't be bothered either way?

 

[condorlover1]

I just put plug in the things and smoke them and as the years go by they take on color. What's interesting Jpmcwjr is that I find that waxing has little effect on very old meerschaums like mine as they are as hard as rock after 100+ years. I just let the water, tar and oils from what I smoke do the work, eventually the pipe will resemble every other pipe I own!

 

[weezell]

No gloves or any of that stuff for me. I'm with Simon, load em with plugs and rope and smoke em...

 

[shaintiques]

That's pretty cool. I like that you are keeping track of what you smoked in it.

 

[condorlover1]

Thats right Mr. W as there is no other way to color these pipes properly other than loading them up with plug or rope and smoking them!

 

[gnesiohamartolos]

easterntraveler, I admire the way your Tekin author (or is it a tomato) appears translucent in the shank. I have a few with this characteristic. Sometimes the meerschaum displaces a speckled quality with lighter spots as if the sepiolite contains varying densities of magnesium silicate.

 

[gnesiohamartolos]

condorlover1, I have a number of pipes over a century old. They don't all react the same way to waxing. Two have not changed at all but they came to me fairly well colored. The bowl of the one depicted colored dramatically after wax-jojoba oil was applied. These are pictures over an 18 months span. It has not changed much since then.

 

[gnesiohamartolos]

Fnord, the process by which meerschaum colors is not well understood. It is believed to be related to chemicals resulting from tobacco combustion traveling through the meerschaum and reacting with the surface coating. Electron microscope photos show sepiolite (meerschaum) to be a lattice patterned mineral clay. Best I can do is speculate that the specific chemicals that cause coloration are more concentrated in lower temperature smoke that passes through the shank than in the tar that has direct contact with the bowl. However, the attached photo shows one of my pipes, about 140 to 120 years old, that has a lighter colored shank and darker bowl. (Right click the square and choose "view image")

 

[pepesdad1]

Beautiful pipes. Makes me want a bowl of Condor Long Cut in my meer. That cutty with the new stem is perfect!