Meerschaum Pipes
A German term, meerschaum literally means “sea-foam,” alluding to the ancient belief that it was the compressed whitecaps of waves. In reality, meerschaum is a hydrated magnesium silicate, composed of the fossilized shells of tiny sea creatures that fell to the ocean floor millions of years ago. It is meerchaum’s rigid crystalline structure, the arrangement of the magnesium, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms, that makes sepiolite (the clay mineral that is identified by pipe smokers as meerschaum) so good for smoking.
Meerschaum deposits of the highest quality are found only in one place in the world, a small area of four square miles on the plains of century Turkey surrounding the small city of Eskisehir.
Mined with hand tools by men trained in this singular family tradition, meerschaum is excavated at depths ranging from 200 to 400 feet. The average meerschaum block extracted from the clay is about the size of a grapefruit. The miners wash these raw meerschaum lumps and sort them into five categories according to quality. Each of these categories is further divided into twelve grades according to size, color porosity and homogeneity of the mineral.
In the eighteenth century early meerschaum pipes were carved by hand, as they still are today. The carver, a craftsman of unique ability and long experience, examines each piece of meerschaum, calculating the lines of cleavage along which it should be split. The split block-meerschaum is soaked in water for 15 to 30 minutes until the material achieves a cheese-like consistency. Working with the softened material, the carver determines the rough shape of the pipe before the bowl and draft hole are bored and the final elaborate or simple design is carved on the pipe’s bowl and stem. Turkey, Germany and Austria are leading sources of these works of pipe artistry.
Like all fine hand-crafted articles, no two meerschaums are alike. The carved meerschaum goes into a kiln at high temperature, a process that removes all moisture from the mineral. The shank is threaded and fitted with a stem. After meticulous polishing with the finest grade abrasives, the meerschaum is ready for waxing. Though there are many different wax formulas, beeswax alone yields the rich coloring associated with the finest meerschaums. Melted and then bleached, the beeswax is ready to receive the pipe itself. The subtle differences in color and tone among pipes are intentional, achieved by careful dipping of the pipes a specific number of times.