Those who refrain from handling their meers...

[rottingcorpse]

I do not handle my pipe when smoking, because coloring is an important factor for me. Those who share similar views, I have a question for you. When or if your meer is fully colored (reached its full coloring potential), can you handle the meer then without affecting the coloring, or will it remove color, become splotchy, etc.?

 

[warren]

Unless you have a couple of trusty subalterns handy to continuously smoke your meer for you it isn't gonna fully color in your lifetime.
The coloring is the residues of the tobacco seeping into the meerschaum. Your fingers will remove or soak up these residues, smear 'em, or what have you. The wax simply keeps the tars and stuff from seeping onto the outer surface of the mineral. When you handle the pipe your fingers contact either the bare surface with its impurities or the wax. If you want to try and insure a totally, evenly darkened meer you probably should not handle the pipe itself with your dirty, oily fist and fingers.
Uneven coloring is usually caused by the uneven porousness of the mineral more than simply handling. A fully dark chocolate colored meer is rare. Besides being a bit fragile the mineral will take years of concerted smoking to naturally color.

 

[rottingcorpse]

Thanks Warren for clearing that up. I've seen some meers that apparently were fully colored within a very reasonable amount of time, and others taking years to even show evidence of coloring. Mine is coming along pretty fast, so I don't think it'll take a lifetime. I'll just keep handling it by the stem. I only asked for future references. I refrain from holding any pipe by the bowl in the warmer months, but it'd be nice when fall and winter hit.

 

[warren]

I didn't mention that I do handle my meers after a while, without the cotton gloves or handkerchief.
You do know that a fully, naturally colored meer will be almost black, a very deep, dark brown from bowl top to the end of the stem. I've only seen five. Only two were not in a museum. That said, I've not met many meer smokers out and about in my part of the world.

 

[rottingcorpse]

I only saw them online, I think some on this site. I thought meers have different permanent colors (not coloring stages), like deep yellow, red, brown, black, etc., and don't some have permanent patterns, like the marble look?

 

[warren]

I was speaking of a, for want of a better word, meer colored to perfection. I suspect one would need a pipe cut from a perfect block of top class meer.
I have pipes which are most likely as colored as they will get, sadly. I do have one which has fully a deep, almost black, brown stem, bowl bottom and abubt a third of the way up. It is still coloring and I hope this is the one!
Judging from the time it has taken to get to this stage I will be in my nineties when it is "finished." This pipe is and has been smoked five to seven nights a week for years. When I first purchased it, I smoked a couple of bowls a day in it. The pipe is nearly forty years in my possession and was purchased new. It's the Oom Paul pictured in an earlier thread.
"I'm quite proud of it!" He said shamelessly.

 

[rottingcorpse]

You showed me your 3 meers on another thread. They're all very beautiful. I know your views on waxing, but I've had different experiences. They drastically aided in the patina for my meer. I think you should give it another shot, trying this method I poorly wrote in another thread, but I think you'll be able to comprehend it. You only need a small bar of beeswax and less than an hour.
" What I do is heat up my beeswax mix on the stove along with holding my pipe above a flame to open the pores. I then rub the melted wax onto the pipe (with a bent churchwarden pipe cleaner) until it's completely covered in wax. Then, I let it sit for 15-30 minutes and heat it once again with a blow drier and wipe the excess wax off with a white 100% cotton cloth. It's not as messy or complicated as it might sound. Use a container you don't care about, because the wax is a pain in butt to get off. Also, some people apparently use olive oil in their beeswax mixture. Also, you can remove the stem and tenon if you're scared it might melt, but I had no problems. Use a cork if you're scared the wax might leak into the bowl, but again, I didn't need to."
About 75 smokes:

5-10 smokes later and rewaxed using the method above:

The dark color remained there, and the lighter, marble-like coloring faded but is still visible. The darker portion in the image above is expanding noticeably.