(2) Ashes should be allowed to remain in the pipe till thoroughly cooled. Then emptied. The object of this is to allow the liquid residue to soak into the pores of the new wood.
(3) Do not scrape the inner surface of the bowl. The thin coating of carbon (the “cake”) which is formed on it is a nonconductor of heat and prevents the wood from overheating or cracking. It keeps the pipe cool and is a good absorber.
(4) After half a dozen smokes the rule of removing the ashes should be reversed. They should be removed promptly after smoking. Blow through the mouthpiece after smoking. By this time the inner surface of bowl is sufficiently soaked and coated and continuation makes it acrid and sodden.
(5) Always allow your pipe to cool and dry before resmoking. Use pipe cleaners and pipe spoon for cleaning. When the “cake” becomes too thick part of it may be removed but always leave a layer next the wood. Be careful not to scrape the surface of the bowl.
(6) A pipe should not be used continuously for more than a few weeks or a month. It should then be cleaned and allowed rest unused for a while. It is well to allow it to hang where the sunlight can play on it. Acrid matters will dry out and the pipe will be sweet when smoked again. It is a good plan to pack the bottom of the bowl with powdered chalk when it is resting.
When a pipe tastes acrid it requires more than ordinary cleaning. If one has the opportunity a most excellent way is to blow steam through it, first removing the mouthpiece. Another way recommended by a smoker who says it is most efficacious is to fit a cork into the bowl of the pipe. Make a hole in the cork, into which the nozzle of a soda siphon will fit snugly. Direct the mouthpiece into some emptying vessel and force about a wine glass of the soda water from the siphon through the pipe. It will clean it out effectively.
If you are smoking a meerschaum and desire it to color well and evenly it is a good plan to use a false upper bowl to fit inside the bowl of your pipe. The rim of fire where the tobacco is burning makes the pipe bowl too hot and does not allow that part to color. The false bowl will prevent this. Some smokers think that covering a meerschaum bowl with chamois will cause it to color well. The chamois will not aid the coloring but it will protect the bowl from being touched by the hand during the process and thus avoiding a spotty effect, particularly if the hand should be moist or greasy. During the progress of the coloring the pipe should never be allowed to get too hot. The time required to color a pipe depends on the tobacco used. If it is a rich oily tobacco, the time necessary is shorter than with a dry tobacco.
Imitation meerschaum of the cheaper kind are sometimes artificially colored by the makers. This is done by boiling the pipe in an oily solution of nicotine, the formula for which as given in the American Druggist, V. 58, is:
Crude nicotine (oil of tobacco)==℥ i.
Olive oil==℥ ii.
Yellow wax==℥ viii.
The pipe is kept in the boiling solution from 10 to 15 minutes and rapidly absorbs it. The surface is capable of a high polish.