there's a story about the owner/founder of SMS meerschaum pipes taking a baseball bat with him to shops he was selling his pipes through & he'd taking batting practice with his meerschaum pipes to demonstrate their toughness LOL ... i don't do that with my meerschaums, but they are much tougher than folks give them credit for ...
Goes to show Meerschaum can be quite tough actually. But as a precaution I would advise sanding Meerschaum (sepiolite) in a well ventilated area with a P3 rated mask on since sepiolite dust is fibrous dust similar to asbestos fibre dust and can thus probably similarly penetrate into the lung’s alveoli. However due to lack of data sepiolite is not (yet?) classified as carcinogenic, but - at least in Germany - classified as potentially carcinogenic (category 3).
Excellent video, I am currently restoring a Savinelli Citation which has a lined bowl, I think I'll leave it at the point you do in that it's not white but has a darker portion towards the bottom of the bowl, thanks for your tutorials I love them!
Have you ever ran hot water from the sink thru a pipe? I always do this on estate pipes after I'm done thoroughly cleaning them. I've never had any negatives occur. The only thing is the hot water will remove any wax from the outside of the bowl. I always run water thru before waxing.
Thank You for these tips, much appreciated, if the bowl of the block meerschaum pipe has developed a cake does these same reaming methods apply for those too? Best Greets now, Paul
