What on earth is meerschaum, and why have I never heard of this material? This is what I was thinking when my father stumbled over the word ‘meerschaum’ (meer-shawm – mershawm, murshawm) as he showed me his new treasure a hand-carved meerschaum pipe. In fact, meerschaum is a favorite material for pipe connoisseurs because it produces a cool, clean tasting dry smoke. It also lends itself to carving because of its ability to be softened, simply, in water alone. The actual mat