Breaking in a Meerschaum

[arturo7]

Just picked up a new block Meerschaum pipe. This is my first.

Any tips on breaking it in?

[Johnny]

Just smoke it. Doesn't require any break in period just a lot of smokes to make it color. Some people will say to not let it build any cake. I just use a piece of paper towel to clean the bowl after smoking

[Thelonious monkfish]

Push it! Make that Meer yours, smoke it how and when you see fit. It's a mineral, they're hardier than often given credit, and you can always zip tie the damaged ones. I just keep my hands clean when handling them and run a cleaner now and again if I think it could use one. Mine are all caked and I like them that way. Will clean out residual bits/ash/soft cake with a q tip, usually after each smoke but I won't intentionally remove cake, just manicure it. Curious to know how you end up going about it.

[Fr_Tom]

I just smoke them like anything else. I have never done anything special with break-in. Mine cake up and get reamed. I will say the first few smokes sometimes taste like you are burning off a little wax or fingerprint oil that has gotten in the bowl. They improve with a few smokes.

In one of those things, I have typically found they thrive on certain blends. My Altinoks are really good with ODF. Picayune is a little pedestrian in the same pipes. This sort of thing is true in general, but I find it more pronounced with my meers.