Why Don't You Smoke Meerschaums?

[pappymac]

I like meerschaums and have 9 of them that I have smoked at least once. Four were brand new and the other five are estates.

One of them is a very large estate pipe carved to look like a lighthouse by Akdolu. The top of the lighthouse comes off so you can pack the bowl and serves as a windcap. It is an estate pipe and I have smoked it a total of three times since I bought it. It goes with another estate pipe I acquired of a sailing ship, under full sail, carved by Bolgi, and my U.S. Coast Guard pipe carved by Servi. I smoke my Coast Guard Meer probably twice a month.

I also have a Servi Churchwarden my wife bought me as a gift 4 years ago and a CAO figural Cavalier she bought me for a Christmas present in 1984. I smoke both of these regularly, also. The last meerschaum I have and smoke regularly is a CAO carved to look like an ear of corn. The bowl is the cob and is wrapped with the leaves, the stem is the stalk.
The other three are estate pipes that I don't smoke now. I have an Saxophone Sultan that was unsmoked when I bought it but after smoking it once it developed cracks around the bowl. It's nice looking so I keep it on display. Another one was also unsmoked when I bought it and the stem cracked when I cleaned it with a pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol. It is now a display pipe. I examined both of these carefully with a magnifying glass before purchasing and didn't see any cracks. The third is a Gourd Calabash with a meerschaum bowl that I rescued for $35. I have smoked it, but there are three cracks in the bowl so I have it sitting in my display case also.
I view meerschaums as smoking pipes and as works of art. The artistry that goes into carving the figurals is amazing.

 

[hawky454]

I’ve never gotten a good draw from a Meer and they aren’t as easy to modify as briars are. After seeing Harris last Meerschaum I’m feeling like I’m ready to give a Meer another go.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

As I'm sure you're all aware; each pipe has its own characteristics, whether its a briar, cob and/or meerschaum. With each pipe you learn what tobacco's it smokes best, and which packing method works best, etc. With that said, if your meerschaum pipe has the push/pull style tenon mentioned above with the "restricted draw" then as ChasingEmbers stated; try packing the pipe differently or try smoking a different cut tobacco.
Like I stated earlier; I have several meerschaum pipes with that style tenon and I don't have one issue. Heck, one of them with that setup is my favorite meerschaum pipe and one of my best smoking pipes. You just need to learn how to smoke that individual pipe to get the most out of it.

 

[irishearl]

I can appreciate the beauty of some figural meers. Have only owned 4 meers in my 40+ years of smoking. Had a large gourd calabash. Am not rough on pipes and the bowl eventually cracked. The gourd also accumulated oils to the point of blackening unattractively. Had a large meer billiard. Also cracked. Had a screw tenon Peterson pressed block meer. Threads eventually stripped. Still have a Peterson African block meer in what they call the aboriginal finish, a faceted one. Functions fine but as mso49 noted, it has not colored attractively. It simply has "dirtied" taking on ash gray coloration along with some tawny color. Generally, however, prefer the look and taste of briars.

 

[mikethompson]

Pappymac - that is a beautiful carved meer! Thank you for sharing that!
I just have one, a Straumbach bent billiard with a conventional push in stem. It's a pressed meer, but it smokes wonderfully, nice and cool, and for whatever reason, I hardly need to relight it. I don't get any weird taste from it, and smoke every blend I've tried (albeit not that many) in it.
It feels nice and solid too, I'm not afraid of it breaking randomly. I always smoke outside as week.

 

[cigrmaster]

pappy, very cool looking Meer.
hawky, the drilling at 4mm is fine but the stem is a tad constricted in comparison to my artisan made pipes. A fluffy BJ Long tapered pipe cleaner is a pain to get all the way through so I use Dill's pipe cleaners on my Meer. I am thinking of getting either Zack or Walker to open up the stem for me.

 

[9mmpuffer]

I have 5 meers and a calabash but I only smoke the Calabash often. I prefer 9mm filter pipes and all my meers are non filter so they usually just sit. I really should sell them and acquire some 9mm meers at some point, I'm just not a fan of eBay and there really isn't anywhere else to get market value for great pipes.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Welcome to the forum! I think you might get a fair deal on selling your pipes right here, but you've a ways to go as to time here and number of posts before you can put them up. There are also a number of good sponsors here that handle sales. I won't mention any for fear of leaving someone out.

 

[Chasing Embers]

If not he could always contact pipestud.

 

[9mmpuffer]

yes, I forgot about pipestud, thank you for the suggestion.

 

[panamacharlie]

I have two meers, one is the exact twin to Cortez's claw, the other is a straight billiard. I also have a gourd calabash. They are seldom smoked, maybe because I prefer the taste from my 30 briars? But after reading this thread I got my claw out, filled it with Dark Red, and had a fantastic smoke! But it is way too uncomfortable to clench, its more of a TV watching pipe.

 

[cortezattic]

Charlie, do you have any idea who carved your pipe? Mine was purchased from Tinderbox in the late '60s, and there are no markings on either pipe or case. I read where pipes like this were often done by apprentice carvers, hence no name.

 

[ashdigger]

To answer the OP.... I don't know, I smoke the shit out of mine. I even travel with them. They get smoked hard, but they go back in their hard case. My two favorite travel meers are an 1881 Devil Anse style and a Falcon that's been cut down and fitted with a meer bowl.

 

[panamacharlie]

On the left side of the shank it says IKOOP or IKoor

 

[panamacharlie]

Because the tips of the claws color differently than the main part of the claws, and because the shank is coloring differently than the bowl, I have wondered if the pipe was made in two pieces, the bowl set into the shank, then the tips of the claws closed in with a different material. I also purchased mine from the Tinderbox in the 60's.

 

[cortezattic]

Thanks, Charlie. I always assumed the pipe was a one-piece carving, but I see your reasoning. Looking closely at my claw, it looks like setting a bowl into the shank (or "palm" of the claw) would be more difficult than just carving it from whole block. The curved surfaces would be really hard to mate as well as they do. But I don't rule out the possibility that a meerschaum paste could have been applied, and then trimmed-up.

 

[cortezattic]

:lol: The more I look at it, the more I'm inclined to think you're right. I always wondered how any carver could get the bowl so smooth and symmetrical in the areas under the talons. If the bowl was a separate unit it would be no problem.

 

[5star]

I have a couple of meers. One was kindly gifted to me. It has a threaded tendon and a kinda restricted draw. It’s an inexpensive model. The other meer was purchased from eBay. It’s German & from the 1930s. Unfortunately, it has a ‘chemical’ smell to it. I didn’t pay a lot for this latter pipe, maybe around $30 for it. At that point I did some actual research on meerschaum pipes & decided that when I do buy one it will be from a well regarded maker. These don’t come cheap, and I actually have plenty of other pipes to smoke now. So it may be awhile till I pick one up. One bit of advice I got from experienced meer smokers was not to spend money on cheap, inferior pipes. Save up till you can get a good one.

 

[hawky454]

hawky, the drilling at 4mm is fine but the stem is a tad constricted in comparison to my artisan made pipes. A fluffy BJ Long tapered pipe cleaner is a pain to get all the way through so I use Dill's pipe cleaners on my Meer. I am thinking of getting either Zack or Walker to open up the stem for me.

Oh wow, thanks for telling me that. I was worried about that too. Stems are a pain in the arse to open up and it’s best left to the professionals. I do it from time to time but you need to use tapered drill bits. In this case I may just pass on getting another Meer all together.

 

[renfield]

I have a dozen meers ranging from well over 100 years old to recent manufacture. Besides smoking differently than my briars, they all smoke differently as compared to each other.

IME a meer’s contribution to the flavor of the smoke improves as the pipe accumulates some use. I hesitate to speculate why but that’s been my impression. They also seem to take more bowls to really break in and hit their stride than a briar. Up to that point they smoke in a very neutral way which some may find odd or even off-putting.
Fortunately it’s possible to get a good, simple meer for a reasonable price to see if you like how a meer smokes.