You should always start using a meerschaum pipe very carefully and with low temerature. For it is intended to create a black layer of grime and condensate inside the pipe. This will then, further on,  work like a filter for the smoke and liquids. If the pipe gets too hot the first time in use, this layer can't accure and all good characteristic traits of the meerschaum pipe won't be able to deploy.

A beautiful

in a very nice casket.

Meerschaum - or sepiolite - literally translated means "foam of the sea", but it has got nothing to do with the foam on waves in the sea, but is a mineral resource that mostly appears in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. Especially in Turkey.

Because of its soft and porous consistence it is very popular for the manufaction of pipes. It is easy to form and to deal with. Additional to this it absorbes liquids very easily, wich is important for a good working pipe. In Turkey

are almost completely manufactured. The detail-loving, filigrane shapes can't be produced by machines. Sepiolite nowadays has become so popular and rare, that the export of untreated sepiolite is prohibited by the turkish government. Just the export of meerschaum products like pipes or pipe filters is allowed or at least already treated material.