Meerschaum.

A soft white clay like material consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate, found chiefly in Turkey.

 

To be honest Meerschaum freaks me out,  far too many do’s and don’ts and fragile, I guess I’m a little clumsy and briar is far more resilient. I’ve redone a couple in the past but always let them go, this unmarked Meer I received a year ago in a lot and forgot all about it until I was digging in my tobacco drawer for a new tin and stumbled across its case. I’m amazed by the skill used to carve these intricate pieces and many are unsigned, the carver never gets credit for there time and effort. I’ve always enjoyed seeing a well colored Meer, I’ll hang on to this one and see how she turns out.

The Restoration.

 

The pipe was in decent shape, a few shallow scratches and light rim build up. The stummel was in sold condition free of cracks and the chamber was free of cake. The stem was the biggest issue, plugged shut with tars and oils, the threaded tenon was seized in place and the bit was chewed and chipped.

To fee the threaded tenon I dripped a little EverClear around the tenon and left it to sit, after twenty minutes I was able to free it from the stem. I cleaned the internals of the stem and stummel with EverClear, Q-Tips and soft pipe cleaners, cleaning until the pipe clears came out clean. I cleaned the rim with Method Good For Wood Polish removing the build up of tars and oils.

The lip/bit was chewed, cracked and chipped. The stem being lucite made things a bit more difficult to repair the missing piece of the button. I mixed thick black CA glue and a little charcoal powder and applied it to the lip/bit area with a toothpick hitting with accelerator to set the patch. The patch wouldn’t be transparent but the repair would be stronger then using Gorilla glue.

I left the stem to sit overnight to allow the patch to cure, the next morning I reshaped the button with needle files and 400, 800 and 1000 grit sandpaper.

With the new button formed I ran the stem though the various grits of micro-mesh.

In the end the patch blended pretty well.

Complete.

 

I gave the stummel a wipe down with Howard’s Butcher Block Conditioner and hand buffed off the excess. I lightly buffed the stem at a low rpm with blue compound, a few coats of carnauba and a micro-fiber hand buffing.

Thanks For Taking A Look

Tim.