Temperature, Meerschaum and Myths

[drayve85]

ok, so, I may be beating a deceased horse, but I couldn’t find too much anecdotal facts. I live in Tawas city Michigan, and have recently begun smoking meers exclusively. All has been all well and fine until the past few days when the mercury started to dip. That got me thinking about when I should and shouldn’t smoke my meers while walking around the property trying to tucker out the pup. So my question is: has anyone here ever had devastating results to their meers from cold temperatures? Not just stories, “I know a guy who knows a guy who had his meer explode in his hands in 31’f weather!” Or, has/does anyone here smoke their meers in all types of weather with no adverse effects? Any input is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[anotherbob]

ok, so, I may be beating a deceased horse, but I couldn’t find too much anecdotal facts. I live in Tawas city Michigan, and have recently begun smoking meers exclusively. All has been all well and fine until the past few days when the mercury started to dip. That got me thinking about when I should and shouldn’t smoke my meers while walking around the property trying to tucker out the pup. So my question is: has anyone here ever had devastating results to their meers from cold temperatures? Not just stories, “I know a guy who knows a guy who had his meer explode in his hands in 31’f weather!” Or, has/does anyone here smoke their meers in all types of weather with no adverse effects? Any input is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

not that I have heard. But cold can make your hands clumsy and that can break a meer or even briar.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

What kind of dog, need to know all the variables!

My Meer is smooth, so for me, it's not for walking about as I can see it being more likely to slip out of my grasp than a briar. As for heat issues, like with briar, I know nothing scientific and I don't know any guys who know any guys!

 

[warren]

A smoldering meer is certainly warmer than the ambient temp. I've never experienced a problem taking my meer out of my pocket, stuffing it and smoking, even in below zero temps. It's in my warm hand with burning tobacco in the bowl. Even clenching in cold weather I can warm my fingers with the bowl.

I've heard "horror" stories about "exploding" pipes, meers and briars, but never met anyone it actually happened to. I've only been smoking meers in Alaska for 50+ years. Now days though my mers are mostly smoked indoors by choice.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'm mostly meerschaum and smoke them in all temperatures be it indoor, doing yardwork, or hiking.

 

[jerry]

I’ve smoked meerschaums in the New England winter cold for years with no ill effects to the pipe.

 

[trudger]

I have the same experience smoking meers as Warren, no troubles with cold weather. If it does blow up we will need pictures of your dog. Hope the winds not too bad off the lake!

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I wouldn't pick up, load and smoke any pipe that was stored outside at a really low ambient temperature. I've read several though that do so regularly with no issues. If you had a pipe at inside ambient, loaded it and then went outside to smoke it, I can't find any scientific reason for that to cause a problem. The relatively low amount of convection cooling happening on the outside surface wouldn't be close to the conduction heating coming from the internal burning tobacco.

 

[didimauw]

28 degrees F here. A 3 day old half smoked bowl of Amphora. No explosions yet.

 

[5star]

Well, 28-31F isn’t particularly cold.

Maybe something strange would happen under truly arctic conditions. But, 31F is relatively balmy in comparison.

Mac

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

So I did a little looking and SMS has this as part of its information about Meers:

"Watch rapid temperature changes and car dashboards. A blast of sub-zero winter weather on a warm pipe might cause it to crack. Leaving a meerschaum pipe on a car dashboard in the hot sun can straighten its stem and destroy the wax."

So maybe like anything else it is just avoid extremes? And maybe they are putting that out there more out of an abundance of caution?

I also saw a statement somewhere from the owner of a different Meer company basically saying don't worry about it!

On a cold winter day (I'm not hiking about with a pipe if the temp is in the 20s and windy - not because of concern for the briar, but when it gets that cold and windy I just don't get much out of the experience) I stuff the pipe which is usually already filled in an interior pocket of a down vest and haven't really worried too much about lighting it. It's not "cold" when I take it out and it's still in a bare hand when I light it so I guess there isn't anything really extreme going on.

Guessing Tom Crean didn't think about it!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Guessing Tom Crean didn't think about it!

?

 

[blackpowderpiper]

?

Tom Crean – Peterson Pipe Notes

petersonpipenotes.org

Not sure if he smoked meerschaums though.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Tom Crean – Peterson Pipe Notes

petersonpipenotes.org

Not sure if he smoked meerschaums though.

No idea, his pipes always appear to be briars, but the reference was in relation to briars, guessing a pipe would have been a pipe if you wanted a bowl ini the arctic regions.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Tom Crean – Peterson Pipe Notes

petersonpipenotes.org

Not sure if he smoked meerschaums though.

Interesting that a google search only revealed a sports coach and more so that Peterson would use an act of selflessness to try to sell a pipe.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Interesting that a google search only revealed a sports coach and more so that Peterson would use an act of selflessness to try to sell a pipe.

LOL, as a Big Ten guy I can't get past former Indiana coach Tom Crean whenever I hear his name. Good news is the intrepid Tom Crean is pretty well celebrated/honored in Ireland apart from the pipe smoking connection, but no doubt Peterson has an interest in the connection that isn't purely historical.

He may have used Dunhills in his cabin on board ship to grow herbs!

Imagine what Peterson would do with a picture of that, lol.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Imagine what Peterson would do with a picture of that, lol.

It might give them guidelines of how to make a stem button.

 

[pappymac]

I've only had two meers crack on me while smoking and neither one was in cold weather. They were both estate pipes that I had examined with a strong magnifying glass before buying. Neither had been smoked before. They both had cracks appear when the bowl started getting warm. I think they were just low quality meerschaum.

 

[drayve85]

Thank you everyone, for the responses!! That definitely eases my mind. I was hoping you Alaskan smokers would chime in!lol I’m sure the pup will be in more of my pics, even if a meer don’t explode. she’s a (almost) 3 yr old blue heeler, with a couple others thrown in the mix. She’s a blue heeler tho for sure. Energy for days, playtime never ends! @didimauw I like that Altinay, she’s coloring pretty good too! Thanks again, everybody!

 

[didimauw]

Thank you everyone, for the responses!! That definitely eases my mind. I was hoping you Alaskan smokers would chime in!lol I’m sure the pup will be in more of my pics, even if a meer don’t explode. she’s a (almost) 3 yr old blue heeler, with a couple others thrown in the mix. She’s a blue heeler tho for sure. Energy for days, playtime never ends! @didimauw I like that Altinay, she’s coloring pretty good too! Thanks again, everybody!

It's actually an SMS, But you wouldn't tell otherwise! And yes it's coloring faster than any of my other meers.