Do not let a cake develop in a meerschaum. Therefore do not worry about "breaking in" your meerschaum. Meerschaum pipes, unlike briars, do not burn and hence need not be protected by a carbon cake.
Besides, the meerschaum is softer than the cake and it may crack very easily, since the cake expands with heat faster than the meerschaum does. You can ream it out, but you should be very careful in the process; the reamer will remove meerschaum faster than cake, so you need to watch for spots where you have reamed away the cake and stay away from those. Use a sharp-edged, blunt-ended tool.
Avoid digging into the heel of the pipe when cleaning the graft hole by not allowing the pipe cleaner to extend too far into the bowl. The meerschaum is WET and SOFT in the heel immediately after a smoke. If you have to, for a deeper cleaning you may use a paper towel wetted with a 40%-50% alcohol solution to rub the chamber. Stronger alcohol may cause damage. It is not recommended to use pipe sweeteners in meerschaum pipes.The porous mineral will be soaked with the sweetener causing it to lose its functionality. Smoke your favorite blend in your meerschaum.
Each pipe will color differently. WHAT ARE YOUR PIPES MADE OF? All of our pipes are made of high quality block meerschaum. WHAT ARE THE STEMS MADE OF? Our stems are made of lucite.HOW ARE THE STEMS ATTACHED TO THE PIPE? Most of our pipes use two piece plastic tenon-mortise connectors. Please refer to this image. Mini pipes are attached with a single piece plastic connector which screws into shank in one end and slides into stem in the other. WILL I RECEIVE THE EXACT PIPE SHOWN IN THE PICTURE?
We have one of each pipe and you will receive the exact pipe you see in the picture. Only exceptions are the calabash pipes and cigarette holders, each of which are extremely similar to their pictures. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Tobacciana\Pipes\Meerschaum". The seller is "pipesdepot" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, China, Sweden, Korea, South, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Republic of, Malaysia, Brazil, Colombia, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French Guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Sri Lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macau, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Vietnam, Uruguay, Russian Federation.