Meerschaum Lined Pipes?

I agree ... better to just get a Meerschaum rather than a briar lined with it.

I’ve owned probably fifty lined pipes mostly acquired in collections over the past twenty five years. I’ve only smoked a few of them, which was mostly due to their size, they tend to be the same size as most pipes, and I generally only use larger pipes. Standard size pipes just don’t interest me very much. Some things I’ve noticed. First on the cracking issue. From having so many used ones that I got along side regular briar, plain briar pipes seem to crack at rate higher than lined pipes. I recall a few cracked ones, but at the same time I’ve thrown out probably a hundred cracked regular briar pipes I’ve gotten in collections. I believe the cracking issues to be mostly parroted anecdotes and therefore an inflated perception. Also, I believe many people treated them like briars when reaming them and damaged the meerschaum. Don’t use a reamer on anything meerschaum, it may work fine for a while, but you will crack the meerschaum. Of course human nature will blame the meerschaum rather than the owner’s ignorance of its care.

As far as smoking, they smoke without the taste of briar obviously and handle heat much better. They won’t burn out.

My overall view is that they are inferior to fully meerschaum pipes as they still have issues that briars do. The biggest is moisture. Meerschaum pipes absorb nearly all moisture and are dry about as soon as they cool. But this happens in the mass of meerschaum that makes up the bottom of the bowl and shank. With a lined pipe, those areas are briar so that advantage is lost.

The last thing that I think may have created detractors about them is breaking in. I see people regularly saying that you don’t need to break in meerschaum and that’s true, partially. You can count on your first five to ten bowls to have greatly reduced flavor as the meerschaum sucks in the oils and moisture from the tobacco. You won’t really get the experience of how it smokes until you’ve passed about ten bowls. I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about meerschaum pipes and lined ones because of this lack of understanding.

I only have one meer-lined pipe from the late 1960’s of my grandfather’s; a Citation 509 rusticated straight bulldog, and although the meer is all totally scratched up in the bottom of the bowl and airway region, it smokes perfectly well.

I swore of meer-lined pipes after one from a Tinder box basket, that was a total piece of crap. Years later, in a massive estate purchase, I came to own a nice looking meer-lined straight billiard, marked Meer Deluxe...this one is a whole nother animal, It smokes like a dream, but I've never reamed it, I wipe out with the corner of a napkin after every smoke and put it away to rest for a few months till I run across it again...
Can you smoke them daily, like a block-meer? no, and if your thinking of something for regular rotation forget it, but if you find the right shape and price in an estate pipe, and it's clean{ mine was unsmoked} give one a try...I'd never pay real money for one.

We knew what you meant. My meer lined pipe would be fine if it was my only pipe, but I have a dozen Peterson's and 14 Radices, plus so many more great pipes. I even have about 8 Meerschaum pipes. So, there's really no place for it.

I have a couple Meer lined pipes, both were estates that were heavily smoked, I cleaned them up and they smoke fine.

I do not count them among my best pipes, but they smoke better than some great grained briars that I possess.

Them briars are headed to EBay some day, I will keep my meer lined.