MEERSCHAUM, n. (Literally, seafoam, and by many erroneously supposed to be made of it.) A fine white clay, which for convenience in coloring it brown is made into tobacco pipes and smoked by the workmen engaged in that industry. The purpose of coloring it has not been disclosed by the manufacturers. There was a youth (you've heard before, This woeful tale, may be), Who bought a meerschaum pipe and swore ...

Yes, now you too have the opportunity to become one of the few, the proud, the fans of the Tobacco Barn on our newly launched FaceBook page. That’s right, the Tobacco Barn now has a presence one of the fastest growing and hottest social networking sites for adults. Yes, you must be at least 18 to become a fan but fans of all ages can come to this page and check out the latest pictures, comments, discussions and events all from the comfort of your own wall FaceBook. Our hope is that this will become a virtual extension...

From time to time we get people that ask us about the pipe they’ve found or that someone has handed down to them. When we get great example pipes, I’d like to share them with you all here. In this case, I’m not sure where they got it but it is a great example of a well colored pipe: Wow Carol, I must say, this looks to be a great pipe you've got there. This is an example of a pipe that most likely dates from the turn of the last...

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...

Interesting thread about meerschaum pipes on a non-pipe forum over at the Straight Razor Place. The posting by mparker762 showing off a couple of his best colored pipes includes the darkened claw shown at right. In a subsequent posting, he extols the virtues of using a coloring bowl: As for coloring, a coloring bowl like the one shown with the Cavalier is really the secret. I've got three coloring bowls, a smooth meer, a pebbled meer (shown w/ Cavalier), and an XL briar coloring bowl made for me by Mike Butera after much hounding. AFAIK it's the only...

This blog posting on JackTales  blog brought this new pipe wax to my attention. I've never heard of Paragon Wax for the Pipe before but his tales of using this product to rehabilitate meerschaum as well as briar pipes really caught my attention. I’ve applied numerous coats to my meerschaum and the finish has improved each time. And I might be wrong, but the coloration process looks like it’s accelerated a little. Maybe in drying, the glaze pulled the nicotine outwards. I don’t know, but like I said, knowing the complete disaster I had started with, I’ve been...

Newsbiscuit.com is reporting in this posting that a recent British statistical survey has shown that  for the first time in the history of these studies, the usage of Crack Pipes is not outpacing the usage of Tobacco Pipes! The end of the civilized world is near! Of course the survey resorts to rash generalizations about the type of person who smokes a tobacco pipe: Old fashioned pipes are still popular with certain types of older bearded men; model railway enthusiasts, canal barge restorers and the like, but curiously these tend to be among the least likely people...

Ever since we launched the MeerschaumPipes.com website a few weeks ago, we've been receiving a great deal of email from people about the meerschaum pipes that they have received, mostly by inheritance. The following inquiry prodded my admittedly sorry memory to realize that I never posted about our visit to Sevket during our trip to Eskisehir last spring. From: Gary P. Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 12:54 PMTo: mjg@tobacco-barn.comSubject: Question from MeerschaumPipes.com WebsiteI acquired a nice little Sevket pipe and I gather that is the name of the carver, and is he contemporary ? What can you tell...

While we are talking about colored meerschaum pipes... I figured I'd have to brag on MY Cottom's Choice pipe. Unfortunately, I wasn't eligible to participate in the Coloring Contest so I figured since I'm doing the work on the blog, I can brag a little bit. Does that make me a bad person? Mine is the rusticated pipe in the middle... Jim Allison, previous owner of the Tobacco Barn, brought in a few more pipes to show off to show what is possible. Granted, all the pipes in this contest have been colored for only the past 6 months...

Well, we'll get to that in a minute. All of us at the Tobacco Barn would like to thank all the customers who bought a Cottom's Choice pipe and in particular, those who participated in our Cottom's Choice Coloring Contest tonight! In addition to entries here in the store, we also had a mail-in entry from a customer of ours in Japan. Unfortunately, we were unable to use his pictures in the main voting but he won a special award from the judges for having the pipe furthest away from the store. Our entrants awaited anxiously for the...