Homemade meerschaum pipes

[GIL]

I recently discovered smoking in a meer pipe. I particularly like the taste of tobacco in these pipes, so I spent the winter following some offers .... I have reached 10 pipes and I show no signs of stopping. I have researched the manufacture of these pipes for a long time and decided to try to make a pipe at home, from the "pressed" category.
The raw material is the meerschaum chips resulting from the carving of pipes, sold as an absorbent for pipes.
Some search results on the net indicate raw egg white as a bonding agent, - it is not good, others recommend mixing it with plaster, - that does not work either, finally, after several attempts I found a way that produces a material almost identical to the original, namely mixing meerschaum powder with a little gum arabic and water. Physically the material is perfectly similar to the original, it has the same absorption capacity, but it seems to me to be a little harder, it dries without cracks, and it is easy to process.
Of course others do it too, but no one publishes a recipe or manufacturing method, and it is understandable why.
So if you want to try to make your own meer, follow me, anyone can do it, it is not difficult.

 

[GIL]

I ground the chips to a fine powder, mixed them with water and a little gum arabic powder (less than 1%), and that's it, the material, I mixed it well until it had the consistency of modeling clay that children play with.
Here are some pictures that explain the whole process.

 

[deluxestogie]

During my homemade Latakia smoke materials trials, I found gum Arabic to produce an unpleasant odor when combusted. Chemically, gum Arabic is arabinogalactan, which is a sugar polymer. I would guess that any off aromas from the gum Arabic in your compressed meerschaum pipe would be only temporary, if present. The question in my mind is how its binding properties might be altered by the heat.

Bob

 

[GIL]

This is a small experimental pipe (actually everything is an experiment), which I made without a mold, it came out smaller because I didn't know at the time how much it shrinks when drying (about a third). So the pipe must be shaped a third larger than the size we want it to be in the end. Drying is done at room temperature, until it loses some of its moisture, after about two days I put it on a radiator.
After drying, it is finished with sandpaper and the last step is a bath in hot wax, followed by polishing.

 

[GIL]

aromas from the gum Arabic in your compressed meerschaum pipe would be only temporary, if present. The question in my mind is how its binding properties might be altered by the heat.

I don't know either but I'll find out soon, the gum percentage is small, it may not be noticeable

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Sodium silicate is tasteless and Ive seen a few references of it regarding pipe repair.
Here is a link to common ceramic binders.
Binders for Ceramic Bodies

 

[FrostD]

That’s awesome GIL! Excited to see/hear the rest of the process!

 

[GIL]

Sodium silicate

I tried it, it's not good, it cracks when dried and reduces the absorption of the final product.

 

[deluxestogie]

I've used a 50:50 mix of fine sand and plaster of Paris to line the interior of a corn stalk, making it into a pipe. That blend is used to line forges for knifemaking.

Bob

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

I tried it, it's not good, it cracks when dried and reduces the absorption of the final product.

Right because too much moisture. This should be fairly stiff when worked wet. Pressing into a form or mold is ideal.
Using a binder for ground meerschaum will result in less absorption than natural meerschaum because of the small grains that are locked by a non-absorbent binder vs. locked together by natural formation.
Discussion on pressed meerschaum.

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Not for nothing, this is an awesome idea. I was thinking it would be a great way to make lined wood pipe. But I seem to recall one of my vendors has a castable ceramic that does not need to be fired. Mucho expensive though but I wouldn't need much. Then again I could always use borosilicate or fused silica. But I digress......

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

That blend is used to line forges for knifemaking.

Not for any intended to last more than a dozen hours. For hobbyists the preferred refractory is ceramic wool. Professional furnaces are typically high alumina brick or cast/troweled.

 

[deluxestogie]

Not for any intended to last more than a dozen hours. For hobbyists

The tobacco pipes in which I have used the sand/plaster lining have performed properly for a number of years. My son has used that mixture in his knife forge for about 9 years.

Bob

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

The tobacco pipes in which I have used the sand/plaster lining have performed properly for a number of years. My son has used that mixture in his knife forge for about 9 years.

Bob

Electric or air/fuel? A pic would be nice.
No doubt that mix works just fine to line a cob pipe as its not hardly as harsh environment as a furnace.
This furnace is about 30 years old but only used about 100 hours.
You can already see the erosion that is typical of a furnace and this is on refractory rated at 3200°F.
Maybe I should have added some POP to prevent cracking.

 

[GIL]

These are my pipes. They won't win any beauty contests but I'm quite satisfied, they're my first pipes. In the coming days I'll smoke them and report my conclusions here.

 

[ShiniKoroshi]

Nice work!

 

[Andude]

Amazing! Beautiful enough to me.

 

[Plinsc]

Those look great! Nice job!

 

[Wisps77]

That's pretty good looking work. I might have overlooked it. But did you happen to post the exact ingredients and sources for them? If you don't mind could you do that?

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum, @Wisps77. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

Bob