My laughable attempts at meerschaum, LOL

[windigofer]

Anyways...if anyone cares to see them, here's a few photos of the latest thing I've done (the pipe out of block Utah meerschaum).

Yes, it has been used, it works quite well :3






Please forgive the horrid picture quality >_<

More pics of my pipes are over at http://windigofer.deviantart.com (and I will be getting pics up at my actual domain soon).

[JMB]

Little on the bulk side, but then if it was mine I would smoke bulk tobacco in it anyway.
How does it smoke and what do you smoke in it.

[windigofer]

The dimensions of the pipe are roughly 2" by 1 1/2" by 2 1/2" (the bowl itself is probably closer to 1-1 1/2", maybe about an inch or so deep by 5/8" wide for tobacco)--it does look big, but it is smaller than some meers I've seen. It *is* probably the largest pipe I personally own, though *laughs* (between, oh...my pressed-meer pipes, the clay pipes, the kiseru I did on commission and need to send off, the "alchemist's pipe" I have sent off to its owner as that was another commission, my briar churchwarden, my little Czech briar with the windguard... *laughs*)

I normally use a house blend sold by Oxmoor Smoke Shoppe here in Louisville (specifically a chocolate flavoured one called "Chocolate Mountain" and a store blend termed "Holy Smoke" which is a light but pleasant smoking tobacco; I don't know the trade names that smoke shops would use to order the blends, unfortunately).

In fact, most of my pipe tobacco (since I was 21 or so) has tended to be from local tobacconists, usually smoke-shop blends (we don't have a Tinder Box in town, in fact the two big smokeshops are Oxmoor Smoke Shoppe and Kremer's here); whenever I've been down to Gatlinburg I've hit Gatlinburlier a lot (and that's where I got my first "carve yer own" meer kit, LOL) over in the Mountain Mall and always liked their store blends too. (As it turns out, I've happily discovered they have an Internet presence and I can mail order :3)

So yes, I like the bulk tobaccos too :3

The pipe itself smokes quite well. Very cool smoke, doesn't really get "gurgly" (which WILL sometimes happen if I were to smoke a briar too fast). I did have a bit of a problem with having to relight it about 3/4ths of the way through the bowl, but that was on account that the borehole (to the actual tobacco chamber) was 1/8" rather than 5/32"; I recently rebored it (as can probably be seen in the top view pic *heh*) and will see if that corrects it any. Still, it's a nice smoke.

Probably one thing I want to do next is either get a briar kit or get some meerschaum, and see what exactly is involved IN making one of those windscreened pipes (you know, the ones with the little metal toppers on them with holes in them, they were originally meant to keep sparks from flying out and starting forest fires) :3 Failing that, probably more of a design rather than claws/etc. (Of course, here I am working on a clay fu-dog/fu-lion pipe, too...we're talking after that :3)

[Paul_Tatum]

Little on the bulk side, but then if it was mine I would smoke bulk tobacco in it anyway.

Hmm, I smoke a lot of flake tobacco. I wonder what that says about my pipes...

So Windigopher, what's the scoop on Utah meerschaum? I've never heard of it. Perhaps it could be something to look into. I'd love to try my hand at carving meer pipes if there were a supply of raw material available.
Can you tell us more about this stuff?

Paul

[windigofer]

I'd actually had Utah-sourced meer originally mentioned to me by the owner of J. H. Lowe pipe repairs; apparently a friend of the owner gets meer from Utah for reproduction cane tops and such and has had success with it.

The stuff is available at http://www.greatrough.com for those interested; typically it sells for around 6-8 dollars a pound. Right now they've only larger blocks, but the blocks they typically sell range from 2"x2"x2" to stuff around 6"x7"x2" (the latter, I assume you could make a longstemmed pipe or two with those :3)

Initial roughing out I normally do dry (with a Dremel and hand chisel) and then soak it for about ten-fifteen minutes after which it is carvable with a good set of wood knives (the Niji kits you can pick up for $10-15 at most craft stores work well in my experience).

Other than crappy pressed meer kits, I've not had the chance to play with Turkish meer so I can't compare how well Utahn meer works, but the source was recommended to me as "comparable".

Much like briar, you sometimes have to worry a bit or work around inclusions in the rock, and meer *does* have a slight grain to it (but again, that only really comes into play for rough-shaping).

I actually find that the hardest part is getting the rough shape; once you whittle down to something workable and after a few soaks, you start being able to see a shape in the meer itself and the detail comes easier.

Regarding Utah/New Mexico as a source of meer:

Supposedly a fair amount of meer mining was done in the 1800s, but mostly small scale; Iskesehir has by far had the better press re availability (well, along with Tanzania).

Actually, several places besides Turkey and Tanzania have meer deposits; the Utah/New Mexico area is one, and the Isle of Man has some Tanzania-quality meer (aka it doesn't take colouring quite as much as, say, Turkish after longtime smoking and is a bit harder as far as working with it, probably comparable to briar).

I do recommend Greatrough as I think they're the only place (save the one place mentioned here, or Ebay) that has meerschaum in hobbyist/artisian quantities :3

[Paul_Tatum]

cool, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks!

Paul

[JMB]

Paul wrote:
"Hmm, I smoke a lot of flake tobacco. I wonder what that says about my pipes... "

Now Paul, you know I am the only true "flake" around here.