Tag Archives: Carved Meerschaum Figurals

Refreshing a NOS, Large, Long Shank Meerschaum Sultan

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff was contacted by a fellow in Scotland who had a couple of meerschaum pipes that he wished to sell. This was one of them – a large, long shank, full bent, carved Sultan head with roses carved at intervals along the shank. It was in unsmoked, new old stock condition. The bowl is pristine and other than a few scratches so was the exterior. The shank and bowl have some colouration to it that I think must be due to the original waxing the bowl received when it left Turkey. The stem was an amber acrylic that had dulled over time but did not have any tooth marks or scratches. It had an orific opening in the button. On the right side of the stem near the shank/stem junction it is stamped Made in Turkey. The tenon is a threaded metal with a stinger apparatus integrated into the unit. There is also another metal stinger apparatus attaching the shank extension to the shank coming out of the bowl. I have never seen this type of connection in a meerschaum but I am sure others of you might have. The airflow seems unrestricted when either sucked on or blown through. It is a well carved pipe that needs polishing and simple cleaning. I took some close up photos of the carving and the bowl. The airway enters the bowl at the bottom in the middle. The rim top shows a scratch near my thumb. It is unsmoked as can be seen by the first photo. The second photo shows the carved Sultan head from the front. It is well executed and carved.I took the pipe apart and took photos of the various parts from different angles to show the carving on the shank and the bowl. The rose pattern on the shank extension and the details of the beard are well carved. The metal stinger connector on the stem and the shank extension are visible as well. The diameter of the stem does not match the diameter of the shank so that the pipe cannot be used in a shorter configuration. Scrolling through the photos below gives you a good idea of the condition of the pipe and the details of the carving. I took some photos of the acrylic stem to show its condition before I started to polish and restore the pipe. It is amber, almost butterscotch coloured acrylic with some interesting patterns in the swirls. The threaded metal tenon is a single unit so to remove the stinger would entail clipping the ball off the end of the threaded tenon. I am not willing to do that and will leave it intact.I ran some pipe cleaners through the stem to remove the debris of time in the airway and button. What came out was some dust from the original drilling that was the same colour as the stem material. Otherwise the stem was very clean and unsmoked.The tenon was slightly overclocked so I gave it a coat of clear fingernail polish to build up the threads so that when it was in place in the shank it aligned properly.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. Some wet sand with all the pads but I have found that generally just wet sanding with the initial three grits is sufficient to remove the deeper scratches. The rest of the pads further polish the stem material. I polished the shank extension with micromesh as well. I sanded the smooth portions with 1500-12000 grit pads to raise a shine. I lightly went over the smooth surfaces of the roses to polish them. You can see the shine develop through the photos below. With the rest of the pipe polished it was time to turn my attention to the bowl. I wet sanded all of the smooth portions of the rim, the Sultan’s turban around the top portion of the bowl and the shank and collar of the pipe. I carefully worked on the cheeks and forehead of the carved face with the micromesh to shine it as well. I gently polished the smooth surfaces of the rosette on the turban and the beard of the figure with micromesh pads. The photos below show the developing shine on the bowl. This large, carved figural meerschaum is a real beauty with well carved features of a sultan head on the bowl flowing into the shoulders on the shank. There is a shank extension with roses carved around the round tube and diagonally up the sides. There are rustic portions in between the first two rings of roses. The shank then transitions to a smooth portion for about an inch, another ring of roses and then a smooth shank up to the end where there is a metal insert in the tenon to separate the stem from the shank. The stem is a screw in type with a metal stinger. The material is an amber acrylic that is in great condition. The unsmoked bowl and smooth rim top is in perfect condition. The acrylic stem is high quality and shined up well. I carefully buffed the bowl by hand using a shoe brush and waxed it with Conservator’s Wax. I buffed it again with the shoe brush to raise the shine on the meerschaum and acrylic. I hand buffed the entire pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The new old stock meerschaum is slightly coloured from the wax and sitting but it is unsmoked and ready to break in. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 11 1/2 inches, Height: 3 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 3/4 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches, Chamber Depth: 1 ¾ inches. This large meerschaum will fit really nicely into the collection of any meerschaum collector. I am still deciding whether to smoke it or sell it on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in acquiring it let me know by email to slaug@uniserve.com or send me a Facebook message. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

In With a Roar – A Lion’s Head Meerschaum

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Blog by Steve Laug

In one of the boxes of pipes that my brother sent me there was a brown leather pipe case that was in good shape. There was some scuffing along the edges of the case but the latch and the hinges were in excellent shape. I love a good mystery and certainly this brown pipe case offered up a good one. Fortunately solving this mystery was very simple. All I needed to do was to press the latch on the front of the case and I would know what was inside. I was curious to see what was inside of the case. The shape hinted at a figural pipe and I was pretty sure it was a meerschaum.lion1I pressed the latch and the case popped open. Inside was a nicely carved lions head staring out at me. The head was turned toward me and the carving was well done. It looked at me the same time I was looking at it. It seemed to have a snarl coming out of its wide open mouth. The large curved fangs were opened and appeared to ready to bite my hand when I reached for it. The lion was well carved – the shape of the head, the open mouth, the fangs and the look of a roar were very realistic. The ear on the right side looked really good with no chips. The meerschaum was developing a patina on the jaws and the shank. It was beginning to darken. The stem looked to be amber but I was not sure at this point in the examination. The last inch of the stem to the button had been broken off and was still in the case.lion2I removed the pipe from the case along with the broken tip of the stem and took some photos of the pipe. My brother had cleaned up the externals and the airway in the shank and the stem. He had reamed the bowl and cleaned the soiled surface of the figural. There was a small chip missing from the bottom edge of the right ear. It is hard to see unless you are looking for it. The rim was clean and solid with no chips or dents. The inner edge of the bowl was also clean with no damage. The fur and whiskers on the big cat were also well carved and the patina was beginning to develop in the deeper grooves of the carving.

I examined the stem more closely. I looked at the edges on both sides of the break on the stem and I was sure that I was dealing with another Bakelite stem rather than an amber one. The break looked clean and there was no splintering like I have seen in broken amber stems. It also had a plastic like feel when I probed it with a dental pick. The feel of the material was definitely not amber. The stem could be made of “Amberoid” that was used in making stems before Lucite was invented. The last photo in the series below shows the pipe after I had taken it apart. A threaded bone tenon held the stem on the pipe when screwed into the threads in the end of the shank.lion3 lion4 lion5I wiped off both sides of the broken stem with a cotton pad that was dampened with alcohol. Once it was clean I used clear super glue to glue the two pieces back together. I then used the amber super glue to fill in the gaps around the repair. I also used it to fill in the tooth marks on the top and the underside of the stem. The next series of photos show the repaired stem before I sanded it smooth.lion6 lion7 lion8I cleaned out the inside of the airway in the stem to remove any debris from the repair and also to remove the last bit of darkening I had seen in the stem when it was apart. I used pipe cleaners and warm water so as not to damage the Bakelite with alcohol. I had learned the hard way long ago that alcohol can cause a Bakelite stem to craze – not always but it certainly did on the one I learned on.lion9I have a jar of Clapham’s Beeswax Polish in my restoration kit that I have used over the years to polish meerschaum figurals. It is a white beeswax paste that easy to work into all of the carved grooves in the meerschaum and polishes well. I applied the wax to the bowl with a qtip and my finger and once it was dry I buffed it with a shoe brush.lion10 lion11The next series of photos show the pipe after I buffed it with the brush. I love the frontal look of the lion’s head.lion12 lion13 lion14 lion15 lion16I sanded the stem repair with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the ridge that was over the repaired area. I sanded it until the repair blended into the surface of the stem on both sides. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three sanding pads. After the final set of three pads I gave it a final coat of the oil and set it aside to dry.lion17 lion18 lion19The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I lightly buffed the bowl with a clean buffing pad and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I also buffed the stem with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine on the meer. I have found that a newly waxed meerschaum will darken after the bowl has been smoked for a while. The spotty appearance of the finish will gradually blend into the patina of the bowl. Thanks for taking this journey with me.lion20 lion21 lion22 lion23 lion24 lion25 lion26 lion27 lion28

 

My Brother Says this Carved Meerschaum Bowl Reminds Him of Me…

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Blog by Steve Laug

Meer1My brother Jeff sent me these photos of an old carved meerschaum that he picked up. He said he had to have it as it was the perfect likeness of his brother. I don’t know if that is a compliment of not but this is certainly an amazing carving. There is no sign of who carved it. The bowl is in really good shape in terms of not having any really bad scrapes or scars in it. There are no chips on the edges of the hood and cowl or on the beard of the old fellow. From the photos it is really hard to tell what size the pipe was but I was intrigued. It looked like it would be fun to work on and with a carved head like that and the supposed likeness to yours truly it was even more of a challenge. I could not wait for it to arrive so that I could begin to work on it.

Looking at the photos while I awaited its arrival from Idaho I was curious about the size. I wondered if the pipe might not be a cheroot pipe rather than a full-sized pipe. When I asked my brother about that he assured me that it was too big for that. I forgot to get the measurements on the pipe before he shipped it out to me so that would need to wait until I saw it. The as I looked at the photos I wondered if the bowl in the top of the head was not a colouring bowl. Maybe it was not an integral part of the pipe but an addition that was used to facilitate the colouration of the bowl. I would not know that until I had it in hand. These and other questions ran through my head each time I looked at the photos and really none of them could be answered until I held the pipe in hand. The photos below were included by the original seller. The first gives a front view. The second and third photos show the side views of the pipe.Meer2

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Meer4 The case was in two parts in the photos. It appeared to be in decent shape otherwise. When the pipe arrived I was blown away be the size of it. It was a full-sized pipe. In the photo below you can see it next to a regular tooth brush. Later there will be photos of it in my hand it is a big pipe. It appeared that the bowl in the top of the pipe was part of the pipe. It was the most worn part of the pipe. It had tars built up on the top of the rim. There were some small nicks in the surface of the outer edge. The underside of the bowl was dirty and worn and it appeared that the finish was gone. The bowl itself had surprisingly few scratches in the surface. There was darkening and wear where it had been held but it was not bad. The grooves of the cowl and hood as well as those in the beard had a lot of dust and debris in them. The mouth piece was Bakelite and had a slot in the end of the button. There were some tooth marks on the underside. The stem was also slightly overturned. The metal tenon was anchored in the shank of the meer and the stem screwed onto the tenon. It appeared to me that the threads in the stem were worn and that accounted for the overturn.

I scrubbed the surface of the meer with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. I wanted to clean the meerschaum and the grooves but not harm the patina of the pipe. I scrubbed to make sure that all the grime and dust was gone. I worked on the rim to soften the tars and oils there. I scrubbed the underside of the beard and the rest of the pipe. Once it was clean I rinsed the pipe under warm running water to remove the soap and grime. I dried it off with a soft cotton towel.Meer5 The photos below show the scrubbed and dried pipe. You can also get an idea of the size of the bowl in comparison to my hand in several of the photos. I love the expression on the face of the character. The carver masterfully captured the charm and character of the old man.Meer6

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Meer7 The next photo, though it cuts off a part of the hood still gives a clear picture of the charm of the old fellow. You can see the amusement in his face and the squint of his eyes. The face makes me wonder what he was thinking about. There is some good colouration on his face, beard and hood.Meer11 I sanded the top of the bowl with a medium grit sanding block to remove the tars and oils and bring it back to the original meerschaum surface. The buildup came off with very little work and the rounded rim of the bowl shone with the colour of a well smoked bowl. I scraped the bowl with a pen knife to clean out the thin cake that was forming on the inside.Meer12

Meer13 The stem was clogged and no air could be blown through it. I used a dental pick to clean out the slot and then tried to push a pipe cleaner through it. The pipe cleaner bent and the clog would not budge. I tried it from both ends of the stem with no luck. I used a straightened pipe cleaner and curved it to the bend of the stem and was able to push it through the clog and poke the debris free of the stem. I ran both bristle and regular pipe cleaners through the airway until they came out clean and the airway was unobstructed.Meer14

Meer15 I sanded the tooth marks near the button on the top and underside of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until they were smooth.Meer16

Meer17 I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it a second coat of oil. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and then buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad.Meer18

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Meer20 The rich butterscotch colour of the stem contrasts beautifully with the cleaned and aging meerschaum. The old man seems to give a quirky smile saying that his life is good now. He is cleaned and ready to use. The bowl on the top has been cleaned and the airway in the shank to that bowl is also cleaned and blown out with air to remove the debris that may have collected I the bottom of the under bowl. I will have to get some white beeswax and give it a new coat of wax and then buff it to a shine. In the mean time I buffed it with a shoe brush and raised a shine in the meerschaum. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am glad my brother sent it my way.Meer21

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Meer26 I am not sure what my brother is talking about seeing a resemblance the pipe and me. Do you see any resemblance in the pictures of the two old men? Hmmm makes me wonder what he sees when he looks at me. Now even my kids are calling in my mini-me. Ah well things could be worse.

Thanks for looking.Meer27