Nothing to do with the sea. It is a deformation of Kumer, its inventor. So, as its name does not suggest, this meerschaum is found in the subsoil of Asia Minor. The pipes are made in Eskişehir, 240 km from Ankara. You can see the artisans at work by looking carefully…, the city is very interesting to visit too.
It is not clay, as is often believed, but silicate of magnesia. Sea foam is a porous material and this is its benefit, as it absorbs nicotine and filters smoke. This is why there is no filter in these pipes.
The lighter the material, the more porous it is and the more powerful its filtering effect. But then it is more fragile. We prefer the beige sea foam (krem in Turkish) to white sea foam, which is perhaps less filtering but more resistant and a little less expensive.
At first, when you smoke your new pipe, be careful not to soil it and take it with clean hands. It would lose a lot of its value otherwise.
The price of a pipe varies from single to quintuple depending on the quality of the stone. Be careful with the pipes that represent a face, because the sculpture often hides flaws. Moreover, very simple pipes, without any decoration, are as expensive as carved ones because, in this case, the stone cannot be faulty.
Meerschaums are not recommended because they are often in three parts that fit together with a heat-melting thread.