I was assuming the bottom one was white to begin with, like the bowl. If it was colored then you're right, the whole example doesn't indicate anything.
The Great Meerschaum Cake Experiment
- Thread starter TheWhale13
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Yellow wax on meerschaum is often pure beeswax. Many opt to use the white filtered/bleached wax though.
B
Before this I had no idea that yellow wax because white after smoking it. Gives a nice impression of color though.
Before this I had no idea that yellow wax because white after smoking it. Gives a nice impression of color though.
I've got a skull from Ali that was done with brown beeswax that is starting to lighten. Gives it some nice highlights.
It may be oils from handling but it's not grime and grit. I use the water flush cleaning method. I use a brush to clean the outside of the Meer when I do this.
I believe the bottom pipe is the wax coloring. It certainly didn't color from the inside out that quickly. What's strange is the bowl got writer and the shank colored. I don't know, I just enjoy smoking them. They will end up coloring as a result, nothing I am going to do to try to affect that.
So if this pipe wasn't white to begin with, was it essentially the color that the shank is now except just not quite as dark?
The shank now looks a bit darker I guess, but yeah no internal coloring probably. It seems that the heat of the bowl bleaches the more yellow wax and leaves a pure, beautiful white behind.
Essentially this. Three entire pipe was originally a dull white. The bowl bleached quickly, less than 5 bowls, and the shank has been getting darker ever since. The Original is shown in the post I'm responding to.
After approximately 10 bowls.
After approximately 25 bowls.
And today.
Seeing this pipe has made me interested in getting a colored waxed pipe. Before I thought that they would stay yellow, and instead of giving the impression of more color, just make the color less likely to be seen.
My Kenans both had a yellow/cream colored wax and are coloring nicely. The upper back part of the skull even lightened from smoking warmth.
So apparently on these colored meers the wax on the bowl is affected first...which makes sense because it gets warmer than the shank.
And on this one the shank never lightened at all, just kept getting darker...so that could not be because of the wax heating or it would have lightened. So it seems to me it can only mean the shank colored from the inside out.
I don’t think so. This Meer has a thicker coating of wax than I’ve ever experienced. I think you’re right, the bowl got hotter and there was bleached out. The wax on the shank though has just darkened. That shank is quite thick, no way it darkened from the inside out that quickly.
We like doing torture tests here. We've soaked pipes, had multiple one pipe for a year smokes, left them out in the elements, and last year I cut open a meerschaum.The idea of taking some nice clean fresh tobacco and shoving it down a sewer pipe mortifies me.
I get why that accounts for the bowl lightening, but it doesn't seem like it really makes sense that a lower temperature on the shank would make the wax darken...but then there are much more significant things in this world that don't make sense either.
On white meers the shank always darkens first, and I remain unconvinced that it's just the exterior wax, but I'm not saying I know, and I could very well be wrong.
I would love to go back to not caring about the coloring issue enough to even comment on it, but I've been lured into the coloring cult by all of these threads and I can't get out now.
Enough heat to flash the color on the bowl, and just enough heat to darken the shank. If you wave a heat gun over one, the entire pipe will darken but if you hold it in one place too long, it will loose color before burning.
After browsing through this thread, I'll add this. I've read several books on meerschaum pipes, I've spoken to several meerschaum carvers at a pipe show, and other pipe smokers with large meerschaum collections and meerschaum experience and they all said this; cake is bad for your pipe.
It's okay to have a thin layer of cake, but building up cake like you would with a briar can cause the meerschaum to crack/break over time. The cake does not add to the color as it doesn't allow for new tars and oils to reach the meerschaum and stops the meerschaum from doing what it naturally does; express the tars and oils. As the meerschaum expresses those tars and oils the beeswax that's on the pipe holds the tars and oils in allowing us to see what we call color. If you have a buildup of cake those tars and oils won't be expressed by the meerschaum properly and your pipe won't color like it should.
Other important "NO's" from the books, and carvers; never use alcohol on your meerschaum. Alcohol will stop the natural abilities of the meerschaum. Alcohol is okay on the stem, but keep it out of the shank and bowl. Do not flush water down your pipe. It can damage the meerschaum over time and not allow it to do what it needs to do naturally. Do not use pipe reamers on the bowl, as it can damage the bowl or even crack the pipe. Using a pipe knife can also cause you to cut into the meerschaum causing damage, so they're also not recommended.
As for the washer coin in the bottom of the bowl; not sure where that idea ever came from, but it's definitely a bad idea in a meerschaum. Please don't do that.
It's okay to have a thin layer of cake, but building up cake like you would with a briar can cause the meerschaum to crack/break over time. The cake does not add to the color as it doesn't allow for new tars and oils to reach the meerschaum and stops the meerschaum from doing what it naturally does; express the tars and oils. As the meerschaum expresses those tars and oils the beeswax that's on the pipe holds the tars and oils in allowing us to see what we call color. If you have a buildup of cake those tars and oils won't be expressed by the meerschaum properly and your pipe won't color like it should.
Other important "NO's" from the books, and carvers; never use alcohol on your meerschaum. Alcohol will stop the natural abilities of the meerschaum. Alcohol is okay on the stem, but keep it out of the shank and bowl. Do not flush water down your pipe. It can damage the meerschaum over time and not allow it to do what it needs to do naturally. Do not use pipe reamers on the bowl, as it can damage the bowl or even crack the pipe. Using a pipe knife can also cause you to cut into the meerschaum causing damage, so they're also not recommended.
As for the washer coin in the bottom of the bowl; not sure where that idea ever came from, but it's definitely a bad idea in a meerschaum. Please don't do that.