Two Estate CAO Meerschaums

[AJL67]

Got these in today, love the old Russian theme.
One of them has a lot of cake in the bowl that I’ll have to clean out, I’m thinking sand paper on a dowel to gently clean it layer by layer, any other suggestions on that?



and the bowl in question

 

[AJL67]

Sure it’s 99 out but a nice breeze in the shade and a big shop fan on, perfect time to clean the bowl.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

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.

 

[AJL67]

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 ?

 

[didimauw]

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!

 

[NC TX ID pipeman]

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...

 

[OzPiper]

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

 

[mikethompson]

Looks like there is some solid colouring starting. Those should treat you well.

 

[AJL67]

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

Yah I’ll have to remember to take a closer look later, either way love them and the figures.

 

[captpat]

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.

 

[AJL67]

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

Well i can definitely see the veins throughout and the others don’t have that so from what i have read it would be a translucent.