This depends greatly on how porous the raw Meerschaum used to carve your pipe, the type of tobacco smoked, and the frequency of pipe smoking. While a better quality Meerschaum pipe will begin to color almost immediately, the complete coloring process is gradual and could take a year or even longer. Meerschaum pipes differ in coloring too this comes from the characteristics of the raw stone. One meerschaum pipe can change it's color to deep solid deep cherry another can have marbleized brown this is all about used raw meerschaum's own characteristic. So each meerschaum pipe comes with a nice visual surprise we will witness in the following year afters.