Two Estate CAO Meerschaums

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Dec 3, 2021
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Pennsylvania & New York
I have different reamers I use, but, lately, I've been gravitating to the Smoking Pipes oyster knife. It's easy to control the pressure and angle; you just need to be mindful not to dig the tip at the bottom of the chamber.
 
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didimauw

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 28, 2013
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31,594
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Burlington WI
I ended up going with the sand paper and using a finer and finer grit and some barely damp and dry paper towels. I didn’t want to take it all the way down to stone even though i could have, just didn’t want to eff anything up

In the end it was all very anticlimactic ?

View attachment 153667
Looks perfect to me! As long as the airway is clean, light er up!
 
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NC TX ID pipeman

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 25, 2021
561
1,220
North Carolina,Texas,Idaho
I did also have thick cakes in 2 of my CAO Beklers...I just slowly chipped it of- sliding the dull screwdriver and sharper knife between the wall and cake..but it may be even easier with hot water to soften the cake...The one of yours is coloring nicely almost looking like translucent meerschaum pipe...
 
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OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,560
71
Sydney, Australia
I ended up going with the sand paper and using a finer and finer grit and some barely damp and dry paper towels. I didn’t want to take it all the way down to stone even though i could have, just didn’t want to eff anything up

In the end it was all very anticlimactic ?

View attachment 153667
Not an expert on meerschaums (nor briars for that matter), but the colouration process looks like you may possibly have a translucent meer there
 
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captpat

Lifer
Dec 16, 2014
2,265
12,139
North Carolina
I've used both sandpaper and a pipe knife (aka oyster knife). Each will do the job, I prefer sandpaper I find it's more controlled.

Nice looking pipes BTW.
 
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