Like all cherished belongings, pipes need some TLC to look their finest and give you the best possible smoking experience with every puff. Meerschaum pipes —whose elegant appearance and intricate designs have been beloved by pipe smokers for centuries —sometimes need a special kind of care to color over time while maintaining their ageless beauty.

Meerschaum is a unique material mined almost exclusively on the plain of Eskisehir in Turkey. This rare, soft mineral formed from the compressed, fossilized shells of ancient sea creatures, and although it can be found all over the world or even floating on the Black Sea, authentic meerschaum pipes are always carved from the large, grapefruit-sized blocks of meerschaum extracted in Turkey.

All meerschaum pipes are handcrafted by Turkish artisans and prepared in a specific way:

1. First, the red clay clinging to the meerschaum is scraped off.
2. Then, the meerschaum block is dried, scraped again, and polished with wax.
3. After the block of meerschaum is prepared, it’s carved into shapes ranging from simple to extravagant.
4. Finally, the pipe can be smoothed with glass-paper or heated in wax or stearin to set it.

But many pipe smokers’ favorite thing about meerschaum pipes is that they change color from an off-white cream to a burnt yellow to orange-red to a woodsy amber with time and use. Pipe smokers prize their meerschaum pipes for their highly individualized colorings, which are uniquely that pipe’s and that pipe’s alone.

Myths and rumors about how to best color meerschaum pipes run rampant in the pipe-smoking community, from leaving pipes in whole milk to restore its white color to cleaning the pipe with fire. Do those at your own risk. But what we do know is that wax is essential to protecting the pipe’s surface and helping it to develop that beautiful color palette.

Here are our tips to achieving that gorgeous aged glow and protecting your pipe in the process using wax.

How to Wax Your Meerschaum Pipe

While meerschaum pipes are finished with wax when they’re made, the wax slowly deteriorates over time, meaning that sometimes they must be re-waxed to be kept in pristine shape and to display the vivid colors all pipe owners want to achieve. Meerschaum pipes are colored in a process by which the beeswax that coats the pipe is heated and migrates away from the block of meerschaum. This leaves tar and other smoke particles to be absorbed into the meerschaum, which is an extremely porous and soft material.

To ensure that this process continues throughout the life of the pipe, you must occasionally wax your pipe. Many pipe lovers recommend that you wax your pipe every few smokes with beeswax, using a method like this one:

The materials you’ll need:

• Pure, white beeswax cakes
• Hair dryer
• Cotton swabs or pipe cleaners
• Flannel cloth
• Towel, cloth, or newspapers to protect surfaces

The basic steps to waxing your meerschaum:

1. Use a hair dryer to heat the beeswax so that it’s not liquid, but easy to spread.
2. Smear the bowl onto the beeswax cake, and try not to use your fingers.
3. Start smoking to heat up the meerschaum pipe until the wax turns to liquid. The heat will promote absorption of the wax into the pipe.
4. Use cotton swabs to paint the surface of the pipe evenly with the wax, ensuring that you coat every crevice of the bowl’s design. Be sure to avoid dripping wax into the bowl itself.
5. Heat the bowl again to ensure that it’s absorbed, then lay it on an old cloth or towel to cool.
6. When it’s cooled, polish the pipe with the towel and then the flannel cloth.

A few important care tips you should keep in mind:

• Be sure to wash your hands before smoking or waxing your pipe. Since meerschaum is such a porous material, the dirt from your hands can seep into the meerschaum if it’s too hot.
• Wax your pipe whenever it’s becoming dull or rough, but keep in mind that excessive waxing will cause it to become sticky and tacky.
• You can remove excess wax by heating the pipe and carefully removing build up with a cotton swab.
• Always wax your pipe only when it’s dry, as moisture can cause the pipe to crack when heated.

While other methods for waxing meerschaum pipes exist, and you can certainly find them on the internet if you are willing to spend some time searching, they can sometimes be riskier, require more careful handling, or can be a bit complicated.

Meerschaum pipes require dedication and patience to achieve their fullest array of glorious colors, but they offer a lot in the meantime including a cool, flavorful smoke and an artistic, decoration-worthy design. With the right care, your meerschaum will become a colorful masterpiece in no time.