Question About Meerschaum Quality.

[Greg J]

Hello!

I'm considering buying a used calabash gourd pipe that I saw online. It looks really nice and the price seems fair from what I can tell. In the description, the seller says the gourd and stem are vintage but the meerschaum bowl was replaced (before he acquired the pipe) for unknown reasons and is new and has never been smoked from.

In one of the photos he posted (which I've included below) you can see little spots on the inner wall of the bowl. In the other photos he posted, there don't appear to be any such spots (just for comparison, I've also included one of the photos that show the outer part of the bowl).

I'm guessing/hoping that the spots are simply due to the bowl having been carved from a portion of the meerschaum block (assuming of course that it is block meerschaum) that was aesthetically less than perfect , but I just want to be sure that it's not indicative of something worse than a merely cosmetic issue.

So does anyone know (or have a good educated guess) what those spots are likely to be and whether it's something I should be weary of? Thanks in advance for any guidance anyone might have on this.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[crashthegrey]

Those look like voids, voids make me think pressed. I could be wrong but I'd be hesitant, personally.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I have 3 block meerschaum and 2 Strambach calabashes and none of the bowls have anything like that going on, they're all solid and smooth.
As @crashthegrey said I'd be careful.

 

[Greg J]

Those look like voids, voids make me think pressed. I could be wrong but I'd be hesitant, personally.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I actually considered the same thing and contacted the seller to inquire whether they're just spots on the surface or actually little divots (voids, as you called them) in the surface. I also asked if he knows whether it's block or pressed. I just messaged him late yesterday, so I haven't received a reply yet. I'll see what he says. He accepts returns within 30 days for full refunds, so if I were to buy it and then upon delivery determine that it's pressed, it wouldn't be a big deal. I'd just send it straight back.

 

[Greg J]

I have 3 block meerschaum and 2 Strambach calabashes and none of the bowls have anything like that going on, they're all solid and smooth.
As @crashthegrey said I'd be careful.

Thanks for your reply, that's helpful to know. I definitely will be cautious and wouldn't take a chance if there wasn't the 30 day refund guarantee.

 

[crashthegrey]

Glad to hear he does returns. There are some good posts on here for checking to see if it is block or not. I imagine that you could gather much more with it in hand, so it might be worth it for you, personally, to see this thing.

 

[tenton]

Wondering if someone loaded the bowl with tobacco without smoking it and some of the tobacco juice stained the meerschaum?

 

[DangerStranger]

I'll venture that it is a replacement bowl on an otherwise used calabash. Most of those replacement bowls are pressed meerschaum. Crashthegrey called it.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I'll venture that it is a replacement bowl on an otherwise used calabash. Most of those replacement bowls are pressed meerschaum. Crashthegrey called it.

Right. I think block meerschaum calabash bowls are hard to come by now. Every new one I’ve seen was pressed, but I’m no calabash expert. ?‍

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Probably not a big deal, I doubt that it would affect the smoking quality or life of the pipe. I'm also suspecting that isn't an expensive pipe. Over $125, I'd probably pass. $75 or under, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Greg J]

I'll venture that it is a replacement bowl on an otherwise used calabash. Most of those replacement bowls are pressed meerschaum. Crashthegrey called it.

Right. I think block meerschaum calabash bowls are hard to come by now. Every new one I’ve seen was pressed, but I’m no calabash expert. ?‍

Hey, sorry for the delayed reply. I got distracted with life and other such silly things.

You are correct @DangerStranger , it is indeed a replacement bowl. The seller replied to my inquiry and said it's Turkish block meerschaum, but the listing for the pipe doesn't mention that anywhere (it just says it's an unsmoked replacement), so I'm kind of suspect.

And from what I've read elsewhere, both you and @Country Bladesmith seem to be correct that many/most new calabash pipe bowls are pressed.

 

[Greg J]

Probably not a big deal, I doubt that it would affect the smoking quality or life of the pipe. I'm also suspecting that isn't an expensive pipe. Over $125, I'd probably pass. $75 or under, I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for your input, and apologies for the delayed reply.

I agree that it's probably not a big deal, as long as it is block meerschaum and not pressed. The seller is asking $169 for it, which judging from what I've seen elsewhere doesn't actually seem to be all that bad a price. But again, that is only if the bowl is block meerschaum. When I contacted the seller, he told me that it is block, but I noticed the listing for the pipe makes no mention about that, which makes me kind of suspect. I definitely wouldn't buy it if it's pressed.

 

[mikethompson]

Guys am I off in remembering reading somewhere about a type of work that eats old Meers? I'm not thinking that's the case here, but it made me think of it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Guys am I off in remembering reading somewhere about a type of work that eats old Meers? I'm not thinking that's the case here, but it made me think of it.

Capet beetles will eat horn accents but I've never heard of anything eating sepiolite.

 

[Greg J]

Guys am I off in remembering reading somewhere about a type of work that eats old Meers? I'm not thinking that's the case here, but it made me think of it.

Capet beetles will eat horn accents but I've never heard of anything eating sepiolite.

Yeah it's basically a type of clay, so I would be surprised if there was a worm or insect that eats it.

 

[mikethompson]

Capet beetles will eat horn accents but I've never heard of anything eating sepiolite.

Yup, I stand corrected, it was horn stems.

 

[jonasclark]

Many last-century calabash bowls were pressed, one of the only things besides tiny minis I've seen in pressed from Turkey. They seem to smoke okay. They're not going to color like block, but neither do they fall apart. Could you please show me the entire pipe, and case if it has one? (I don't think cased calabashes were much of a thing after the early 1900s).

 

[Greg J]

Many last-century calabash bowls were pressed, one of the only things besides tiny minis I've seen in pressed from Turkey. They seem to smoke okay. They're not going to color like block, but neither do they fall apart. Could you please show me the entire pipe, and case if it has one? (I don't think cased calabashes were much of a thing after the early 1900s).

It was a listing on ebay, so all I had to go on was the photos in the listing and what the seller had to say about it. It has since sold, but here is the listing if you want to have a look (since the listing has ended, you'll need to scroll down the page past the "Related sponsored items" and "Similar sponsored items" to see it) VINTAGE X- LARGE GOURD CALABASH W/ NEW UNSMOKED MEERSCHAUM INSERT ESTATE PIPE | eBay

As I previously mentioned, I contacted the seller and asked him if the bowl was block meerschaum and he said it is, but I'm a bit suspect because nowhere in the listing does he mention that. One would think that, if it truly were block, it's something that he'd make a point of mentioning in the description. It would be like selling a vintage car and failing to mentioning that it has genuine leather seats.

For me personally, it's block or bust. I would not buy a pipe, calabash or other, made from press. They may not fall apart, as you said, but they do lose one of the most important aspects of meerschaum that makes it such a great material for smoking out of―the natural porousness of the mineral that allows it to so readily absorb oils and moisture (and then, subsequently, allow the moisture to evaporate).

If I came across a calabash where the gourd and stem were in good condition but it had a press bowl, I might still buy it if the price is right. I would then commission someone to make a replacement bowl for it from block. This would not be cheap though. In addition to having to pay an expert meerschaum carver in Turkey to make a custom bowl, I'd have to ship the press bowl to Turkey (so the carver had the exact shape/dimensions needed for the replacement so that it would fit the gourd) and then pay for the shipping of the replacement bowl back to me (Seattle). So I'd have to take that cost into account when determining whether it's worth buying a pipe just for the gourd and stem.

At the end of the day, I just don't think it's possible to find a good condition, authentic gourd calabash with block meerschaum bowl without spending a lot of money. And if you do find one, which you will if you look around enough and are patient, it's probably one that the manufacturer left unmarked/unbranded and sold as a "factory second" due to some aesthetic issue―most likely the gourd being non-ideally shaped or having surface blemishes. Though if you're not that concerned about the aesthetics, then it's not a big deal (the pipe will smoke just fine).

 

[jonasclark]

The pipe pictured is a Pioneer brand, as evidenced by the military mount-like stem. Their stems and ferrules are always black and always this shape. These are 1960s-era. They may have had block, pressed or porcelain (distinguishable by being thin, unlike what's pictured). I, personally, have some Pioneer calabashes and don't really want another, but with a large replacement bowl and the nice well-smoked color of the gourd, that $170 probably isn't half-bad.

 

[Greg J]

The pipe pictured is a Pioneer brand, as evidenced by the military mount-like stem. Their stems and ferrules are always black and always this shape. These are 1960s-era. They may have had block, pressed or porcelain (distinguishable by being thin, unlike what's pictured). I, personally, have some Pioneer calabashes and don't really want another, but with a large replacement bowl and the nice well-smoked color of the gourd, that $170 probably isn't half-bad.

Yeah, I've seen quite a few for sale that look just like it (albeit with varying degrees of color shade on the gourds), so I assumed that whichever company originally produced them must have made and sold a fairly good number of them.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but as is the case with most pipe manufacturers, didn't Pioneer put some kind of mark/branding on their pipes? I assumed they did and thus any that aren't marked/branded were probably intentionally left that way and sold as seconds. Almost all of the ones I've seen (that are in good condition) for under $200 are unbranded, but I haven't been looking for very long, so there very well might be ones out there that are indeed branded.

I know the gourds are very painstakingly shaped by hand over several months while they're actually still growing on the vine, and so it just isn't possible to make every gourd grow into the ideal shape to be used for pipes. Thus a certain percentage of them inevitably didn't. Since a non-ideal shape is much more of an aesthetic thing and the gourds were still fine as far as the smoking performance, I figure that rather than just throw these ones away after so much painstaking effort (and the associated production costs), they instead sold them as unbranded seconds at a reduced price. But again, I very well could be mistaken about that.