Quote Originally Posted by Bruck View Post
Reasons to smoke a meer:
very absorbent - no need to rest them between bowls, kind of like a cob
they look good, lots of designs available, although I favor the classic pipe shapes
they gradually get a brown shade as you use them, from the juices migrating outward

Be careful when shopping for one though, look for block meer - the cheaper ones are molded from cemented meer dust.
That's a good point @Bruck . I look for a reputable brand name to be sure that I'm getting real block meerschaum. Good ones are CAO, SMS, Altinok and others. Block meerschaum is very light, so think twice about buying a heavy meerschaum pipe. I had a meerschaum pipe that I smoked for years and it would never color up like it should have; finally gave up on it and decided it was one of those composite meerschaum pipes. It was a little heavy. Another thing to think about is African meerschaum vs. Turkish meerschaum. The African meerschaum is heavier and denser; I think they smoke hotter than the Turkish meerschaum pipes. I don't hear much about African meerschaum pipes lately, but they were in the market in the past.