Quality Of Meerschaum Pipe?

[hyperstar]

A member in my chat room just showed me pictures of his old meerschaum pipe.
He said it is a 200 years old Ulmer pipe with "high density, almost no pores, no need beeswax to polsih, can be directly polished."
I was like, "Right, can a mineral known for its water-absorbing qualities and porous be described as nearly non-porous and highly density? And I've been told that 100 years ago, meerschaum pipes were coated with sperm whale oil."
Then he replied to me, "Modern meerschaum of this quality is almost used up, and the usable meerschaum must be polsihed by beeswax, that's the reason why high temperature will leave fingerprints on it! I guarantee that there is no oil on it, the African meerschaum does not need polish by oil or beewax, and that thing has no pores as well."
All that high-density bullsh*t is all over me again! I don' know why, but my people really dig into that sh*t about one pipe can be high-density & light-weight & water-absorbing at the same time. That doesn't even add up!
I searched on the Internet, all I can find is "The grading of meerschaum is based on size, density, color and homogeneity."
Then I found @Jef 's article on 2020 How To Pick Meerschaum
Quote: "My 1 grade meerschaum is twice as large and probably weighs 50% lighter."
I thought higher density with higher mass is an common sense.
Can someone help me end this suffering?



Great pipe though.

 

[hyperstar]

Well. I think my question is:
Meerschaum pipe has higher density vs Meerschaum pipe has lower density.
Which one is better?

 

[condorlover1]

The pipe is not two hundred years old!

 

[warren]

He said it is a 200 years old Ulmer pipe with "high density, almost no pores, no need beeswax to polsih, can be directly polished."

His pipe, his story, I suppose. What one believes is one's reality.

 

[hyperstar]

The pipe is not two hundred years old!

How can you tell?
He kept insisting that pipes from 1800s is way better than modern pipes. And kept saying about his pipe has high density casue it has no porous.

 

[hyperstar]

His pipe, his story, I suppose. What one believes is one's reality.

Yeah. But, I really wanna know can density affect meer that much?
That guy kept telling me to buy a meer from 1800s, so that I will know the difference.
I don't wanna argue with him. Yet, my friends in chat room also curious about what he said is true or not.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

Meerschaum exists in spectrum from very dense (african) to very porous (almost translucent). Generally the less dense meerschaum is the higher grade it is, the more absorbent it is, and the better/faster it colors. Overly dense meer is typically thought of as lower quality (for pipes).

If it's the pipe pictured, I also do not think its 200 years old. 100-130ish maybe.

 

[anotherbob]

How can you tell?
He kept insisting that pipes from 1800s is way better than modern pipes. And kept saying about his pipe has high density casue it has no porous.

I think you ran into what we call a shit talker. Someone who is confident spreading the words they pull out of their ass.

 

[warren]

But, I really wanna know can density affect meer that much?

The more porous, the quicker it colors. The coloring "psttern" is, of course, determined by the "road map" of veins. The more porous, the lighter the new pipe is. Obviously the guy is trying to blow smoke up his readers' ass. My opinion anyway. Obviously the pipe hasn't been smoked enough, if at all, to begin coloring. Who knows what he purports to "polish" the bowl with. I can't think of any reason to polish a meer. Cleaning with a damp cloth if smoked with dirty hands yes but, a meerschaum doesn't require polishing.

I, personally, would put little to no weight on what he writes.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

It's also worth noting that there was a flood of "chip meerschaum" pressed meer pipes made from about 1880-1930. Some of them are actually quite well carved nice pipes, but they are very dense and heavy and nearly resistant to coloring (by smoking) of any kind. This is considered the very lowest quality meerschaum. They have almost no absorption properties whatsoever.

 

[condorlover1]

Exactly. Without launching into a monologue about the virtues of very old meerschaum pipes and having considered the question in some detail, a three pipe problem as Holmes would say I can say the following. Both Warren and RustiePyles (Hemorrhoid?) are absolutely correct. The dense meerschaum is the stuff that originates out of Africa and is practically impossible to color. The pipes are often sold pre-colored with a faux darkened rim. The Victorian stuff was a lot more porous and strangely enough the more mundane stuff like 'cutty' pipes and smaller pipes with thinner walls color beautifully due to the thinness of the meerschaum. These are very rarely if ever made from pressed chip meerschaum since the material just wouldn't hold up to the rigors which is why as @RustiePyles CPG they are quite nicely carved figural pipes but they tend to have some heft to them. As to the illustration from our friend from Taiwan, that is not in my humble opinion a 200 year old pipe and probably dates from the latter part of the 19th century if I was to make a educated guess. The metal wear is a bit of a give away and I thought these things originated in Austria. The German ones were a wooden contraption designed originally to hold a broken clay pipe which is very obvious when you look at them.

 

[condorlover1]

As an after thought does anyone think the meerschaum in the op-ed is a just a little bit Artdeco or it just me?

 

[OzPiper]

As an after thought does anyone think the meerschaum in the op-ed is a just a little bit Artdeco or it just me?

You hit the nail on the head

 

[Jef]

A member in my chat room just showed me pictures of his old meerschaum pipe.
He said it is a 200 years old Ulmer pipe with "high density, almost no pores, no need beeswax to polsih, can be directly polished."
I was like, "Right, can a mineral known for its water-absorbing qualities and porous be described as nearly non-porous and highly density? And I've been told that 100 years ago, meerschaum pipes were coated with sperm whale oil."
Then he replied to me, "Modern meerschaum of this quality is almost used up, and the usable meerschaum must be polsihed by beeswax, that's the reason why high temperature will leave fingerprints on it! I guarantee that there is no oil on it, the African meerschaum does not need polish by oil or beewax, and that thing has no pores as well."
All that high-density bullsh*t is all over me again! I don' know why, but my people really dig into that sh*t about one pipe can be high-density & light-weight & water-absorbing at the same time. That doesn't even add up!
I searched on the Internet, all I can find is "The grading of meerschaum is based on size, density, color and homogeneity."
Then I found @Jef 's article on 2020 How To Pick Meerschaum
Quote: "My 1 grade meerschaum is twice as large and probably weighs 50% lighter."
I thought higher density with higher mass is an common sense.
Can someone help me end this suffering?

View attachment 226240
View attachment 226241
Great pipe though.

The only place that I was exposed to meerschaum was in Turkey. To my knowledge everything that I was exposed to was Turkish meerschaum. Everything that I saw was porous. Density was never brought up. Weight was the big concern. Take two blocks the same and weigh them. The lighter one was considered to have less stone in it and carve much easier. Color, etc, etc all plays a part in grading as well.
If it wasn't porous, how would it ever color?

jef

 

[AJL67]

Meerschaum exists in spectrum from very dense (african) to very porous (almost translucent). Generally the less dense meerschaum is the higher grade it is, the more absorbent it is, and the better/faster it colors. Overly dense meer is typically thought of as lower quality (for pipes).

If it's the pipe pictured, I also do not think its 200 years old. 100-130ish maybe.

This is what i was thinking, translucent meers are sought for their fast and unique coloring and because of course they are rarer finds.

Not sure how old it is but whatever floats his boat. It's like the people that buy those "commemoration" meers and because it says "1801" they think it was made in 1801.

 

[jerry]

I‘m not too interested in meer-mythology, personally. Though I’ve collected and smoked them since high school (I’m 70 this month). I had a friendship with Fred Bass who wrote extensively about Meerschaums, and I think he covered this topic … or at least had some opinions I suppose his writings can be found somewhere in cyberspace.

 

[hyperstar]

The only place that I was exposed to meerschaum was in Turkey. To my knowledge everything that I was exposed to was Turkish meerschaum. Everything that I saw was porous. Density was never brought up. Weight was the big concern. Take two blocks the same and weigh them. The lighter one was considered to have less stone in it and carve much easier. Color, etc, etc all plays a part in grading as well.
If it wasn't porous, how would it ever color?

jef

Yes. I told him about the porous. More porous means lighter weight and lower density.
And he replied to me,"Don't you use modern standards to judge my 1800s meerschaum pipe. You've been brainwashed by the merchant's marketing rhetoric!"
So, I decided not to respond to him anymore...

 

[tobakenist]

I had a similar Meerschaum from 1887, it was highly smoked by the cake inside when I got it, it had no colouration (coloration) on the outside, it did look like it had been treated with wax or something similar, unfortunately I dropped it on a hard floor and it shattered, on inspection there was no ingress of anything within the whole pipe, it was certainly very hard Meerschaum and quite dense and heavy compared to Turkish Meerschaum witch led me to believe it was African Block Meerschaum. I used the silver mount to make a spigot for one of my Granddads old Peterson bowls that I could not find a stem to fit as it had a huge mount as some early Petersons had, its spigot says, Hammer 927 1887 and looks great and fits beautifully.

 

[OzPiper]

I had a similar Meerschaum from 1887, it was highly smoked by the cake inside when I got it, it had no colouration (coloration) on the outside, it did look like it had been treated with wax or something similar, unfortunately I dropped it on a hard floor and it shattered, on inspection there was no ingress of anything within the whole pipe, it was certainly very hard Meerschaum and quite dense and heavy compared to Turkish Meerschaum witch led me to believe it was African Block Meerschaum. I used the silver mount to make a spigot for one of my Granddads old Peterson bowls that I could not find a stem to fit as it had a huge mount as some early Petersons had, its spigot says, Hammer 927 1887 and looks great and fits beautifully.

It sounds like it was pressed (Strambach calls it “cultured”) meerschaum which is a lot denser than block meerschaum.
And does not colour well.
I don’t think African meerschaum was around in the late 1800s or early 1900s

The pipe in the OP looks to be of Austrian rather than Turkish origin