Ok, so another song reference you think to yourself... Will it ever stop? Probably, but not just yet!

Well, perhaps the title is just a little wrong. It should actually be Working in a Meerschaum Mine... Just digging up a litle of the White Lady (aka White Gold).

The manner in which these hardy souls work is not much different than during meerschaum mining since the late 1800s. They use a small, single sided pickaxe and haul the day's find using a rope to attach to a bucket and hoist up manually. The only change since then is the use of a carbide lamp to put out the most light with a device that doesn't smoke or eat up too much available oxygen, unlike the pair of nuckleheads below.

Ok, so perhaps Tom and I weren't working so much as getting in the miner's way. We clambered down all 20 feet of the 4 foot long by 2.5 foot wide shaft with the guidance of the eldest miner of the group. As miners dig further down, they carve foot and elbow holds in the sides of the shaft. This is only for more shallow shafts like this one. The deeper shafts, which usually deliver much better and bigger meerschaum will use powered hoists or winches to move the miners and gear down and up. Deeper is better since the mineral that makes up Meerchaum gets compressed and and better cured the longer and deeper it has been in the ground. Surface stone is usually the worst and is not used in any quality products. Even stones mined at the level we were at would only be used for mini-pipes and "domestic production" (stuff that gets sold to other Turkish businessmen for sale at tourists at Istanbul's Grand Bazaar or other tourist oriented locations.

It is very interesting to watch them work and to learn more about the process while we were here in Turkey. This mine is located in a section of the 50  square mile area in all of Turkey where meerschaum can be found. The only other locations in the world are some lesser quality deposits found in South Africa and North America.

The miner's quickly determine the quality of the stone by feeling it and rapping it against the metal part of the pickaxe. They would be looking to see if it holds together when or if it cracks or falls off. This would indicate it is bad. Other tests we learned for good meerschaum is to shave it with a blade, by smell, sound as well as taste. Nothing weirder than seeing a bunch of grown men standing around putting the tip of their tongues to a rock (no, not all at the same time).

During the winter months, very few miners will work. Not so much that the mines get too cold in the winter. Just the opposite. The mines stay at a steady temperature all year round with the temperature dependant upon the depth. The big problem for the miners is they work up a big sweat down there swinging their pick and moving lose dirt and meerschaum nuggets up to the surface so when they go up to eat or perform other bodily functions, it is too easy to get pneumonia. Thankfully for us, it was a pretty nice day. The miner in the adjacent photograph is carrrying away the days's loot.

As you look out across the horizon, you see many, many rolling hillocks that in this area are a dead give-away that you are in mining country.

Looking at the landscape at right, you'll find plenty of mine "tailings", all the junk pulled out of the mine shaft that wasn't good quality meerschaum or miner. If you look at the top left, you'll see a white blob that is a plastic tarp covering hoist machinery at a mine shaft that is sunk down 50 meters (about 150 feet).

Unfortunately, although they are supposed to fill a mine back in when they have finished with it, not al the miners do so. Between where the above picture was taken and the working mine in the background there are most likely 3 open mineshafts.

In some cases the miners will go back to mines used by those who dug back around the turn of the last century as the miners of the time were only interested in BIG pieces for export to Austria. You see at the time, the only meerschaum carving was being done in Austria. Now of course, Turkey considers meerschaum a natural resource worth guarding (as well as providing jobs for artists in Turkey) so it can not be exported in it's raw state. it must be finished in some form or another. At least for block that is. They don't consider reformed meerschaum, which we only use in some of our Carve Your Own kits and in replacement calabash bowls. All of our pipes, unless mentioned otherwise are made from 100% natural block meerschaum from the outskirts Eskisehir.

Next up will be about our meeting with the Emin Brothers.