Blog by Steve Laug
I got this meerschaum bowl in the same pipe lot as the older CPF bowls and the meerschaum bowl I adapted to fit a Kirsten barrel. It is an intact meerschaum bowl from a gourd calabash pipe. I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet but I am brainstorming a few ideas. Sid Stavros has done some interesting looking pipes by converting a briar bowl to hold the meerschaum cup. Have a look at his blog and you will see what I mean. Here is the link: http://pipe-smoke.blogspot.ca/2010/02/meerschaum.html Anyway there is no end to the ideas that I am working on with regard to this bowl. Time will tell! In the meantime here is the cleanup process with photos.
When I received the bowl it looked like this. You can see the scratches and damage to the inner rim and the buildup of cake and tars in the bowl and on the rim itself.
The underside of the bowl was darkened but not tarred and caked. The airway was caked and reduced in size and would need to be opened up.
I sanded the rim of the bowl with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the tars and to minimize the scratches in the surface of the bowl.
I followed up by sanding it with a medium grit sanding sponge – pictured behind the bowl.
I then sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge. The marks and scratches are beginning to disappear.
Then it was time for the micromesh sanding pads. Pictured above are the 1500-2400 grit sanding pads.
I sanded the inside edge of the rim with the 320 grit sandpaper. I wanted to minimize the chipping of the inner edge of the bowl.
I then continued sanding with the micromesh sanding pads – 3200 – 3600 grit. The bowl top is beginning to be very smooth and uniform in texture and look.
I sanded the bowl top with the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads – 4000-12,000 grit. The chipped edge is still visible but not as rough. The inner edge of the bowl is also smoothed out.
I applied some white beeswax to protect the cleaned surface. The shine is very evident in the bowl. Now I have to determine what briar bowl it will grace.
rebornpipes 
Any thoughts on whether a meerschaum lined bowl can be sanded down a little to get rid of ghosting? I’ve got a Brebbia all ebonite churchwarden pipe that has a serious English blend ghost. I’m wondering if the ghost is in the meerschaum or maybe in the ebonite.
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Tim, is the meer bowl flush with the top of the rim? Is the airway in the bowl bottom or is the meer an insert? If an insert you can carefully sand it down. I have also wiped down inside of a meer bowl with isopropyl alcohol used sparingly on a qtip. It helped. i doubt if the ghost is in the ebionite.
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I love the way those meer bowls shine up.
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well gourds might be thin on the ground your way, but I bet Coconuts aren’t, drill hole bigger than insert empty nut fix wooden sleve with cork liner same for mouth piece, just finding a nice shaped nut. Sorry I’ll get my coat – cheers Danny
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LOL! Great comment Danny. I am experimenting with using the glue you sent in binding a crack in a shank… should be interesting.
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