We recently received an email through MeerschaumPipes.com website with a question from a pipe smoker about some problem he was having with coloring his meerschaum pipe. He wrote:

Subject=spotting on my pipe
I bought a new meerschaum and I started to smoke it and as i smoked it i noticed that spots were forming here and there. Is it because the stone is absorbing the wax or is the wax moving around. Its my first meerschaum and I don't want to ruin the look it will get.

Here is the answer that we provided back:

The spots can be caused by a number of different things.

• Realize that meerschaum stone is a natural product and that impurities or differing densities of the stone may cause uneven coloring. This can be part of the fun/challenge of owning a meerschaum pipe.

• Are the spots appearing where you've touched the pipe while it was hot? Normally, touching your pipe while it is hot is not an issue provided your hands are relatively clean. In other words, don't touch your bowl (warm or otherwise) after reading the newspaper or after changing the oil in your car.

• Uneven coloring COULD be the result of uneven wax coating. This could be could be the result of "smudging" the wax with your hand while it is hot (not likely), by smoking your pipe too hot and driving the wax off (would normally result in a blackening of the shank/bottom of your pipe while the top part stays white) or by an inconsistent piece of stone (see first point above)

Our suggestion is to smoke it a while longer and see if the rest of the pipe catches up with the spots to the point that it no longer bothers you.

If after a reasonable amount of time (depends on how often you smoke it) the pipes appearance is still annoying you, you could remove the existing wax coating (which should remove almost all the color) and rewax it from scratch. This is NOT recommended unless you are fully willing to accept the consequences of your action. Many folks have tried this and ruined their pipe's appearance. There is probably little you can do (other than perhaps getting wax INSIDE the bowl) that would physically hurt your pipe but it may end up looking worse than when you started.

Can any of you others out there think of any other causes of spotting like this? Or potential cures to his problem? If so, speak up in the comments section below!