Question on Meerschaum "Burnout"

[jgriff]

I have a relatively inexpensive Meerschaum that has developed an odd problem. It's a freehand shape, so apparently, one corner of the pipe is really thin between the bowl and the exterior of the pipe. At first, I thought it was just dirty fingers but the bowl isn't blackening at one point (see Photo #2) and it's discoloring at the same spot in Photo #1. It gets hot right at that spot but otherwise, it's fine.
Is there a concern that this may worsen or burn through? Is there is anything I can do to "coat" that one spot? If it was a briar, then I'd just allow the cake to cover it but I don't leave any cake in a meer.
If this was an expensive pipe, then I'd probably send it back but the shipping would make it prohibitive and it smokes fine otherwise.

 

[pipingruotsi]

So it's not just the meer starting to color at the thinnest spot first? I've never had a meer burnout, but I guess more experienced meer smoker than I will have to weigh in on it.

 

[jgriff]

At first the easier coloring was my thought too but the same spot inside the bowl is still white, while everything else is blackening. I'm not really sure what it means.

 

[wyfbane]

You must almost be careful pushing your pipe cleaner too hard. There is a (really nice) Meer at my B&M that a very unhappy owner donated after cleaning his pipe to death. Wore a hole right through the front of the thing.
=(

 

[jerry]

It's true that repeated use of a pipe cleaner can eventually create a hole in the meerschaum, if the sharp end of the pipe cleaner digs into the pipe. So, when using a pipe cleaner on a meer, I watch what I'm doing, and stop short of contact with the bowl. I know this from experience :-(

 

[petes03]

@jerry, I do that with all my pipes! As to the OP, I'd say it just has a natural hot spot, and is coloring faster in that area. A friend of mine has a meer that's doing exactly the same thing. I'm no meer expert, but that'd be my guess. I notice, when smoking my meer, it seems hotter in a certain spot, though I haven't had any issues with the coloring.

 

[pipingruotsi]

griff, It looks like the general consensus of the expert non-expert meer smokers here is it's just a hot spot. lol

Unless you can see something that we can't, I'd say just smoke it and see what happens. Meerschaum seems to do odd things. I have one that there's a thumb sized spot on one side that went dark brown almost immediately and another that has a hairline surface crack on the shank that has hardly colored while everything around it is dark.

It's a beautiful pipe, BTW