Tinder Box Memories

mso489 · Apr 25, 2017

I bought my first pipe at Tinder Box, and smoked their aros for years, at the start. I have fond memories, but seldom go back to the shop at the mall. You can't smoke there, and the tins of tobacco are priced high. The pipe selection, once really good and well-priced, has become slimmer, and probably I've become more fussy as my pipe racks have expanded. The owner seems a bit preoccupied, and others he hires to staff the counter aren't especially knowledgable. I tend to want to support my local independent pipe shop with its original proprietor who is a real pipe professional from way back. I almost opened his shop as a customer, all those years ago. But I still have good feelings for Tinder Box, and it's still fun to cruise their cigar humidor, pipes, and tobaccos when I get to the mall, which is not often. What are your Tinder Box experiences and observations?

grouchydog · Apr 25, 2017

Back in high school (graduated 1984) that's where my friends and I got our pipe tobacco and cigars. The staff always treated us well even as 15-year-old know-nothings. My friends bought me a beautiful Ben Wade freehand sitter (since lost) there for HS graduation.
Currently, my closest B&M is a Tinder Box. The proprietor and his 2 employees are all pipe smokers and very knowledgable. That shop seems always to have Esoterica and other HTF blends in stock. If not, he generally takes 2-3 days to get whatever I request.
He will not, however, carry either of the Gawith lines. A number of years back Cigars magazine or something ran an article about Lakeland blends, and a lot of regular customers came in and stocked up. But then they got a snort of the "essence" and the majority came back wanting to return it all. Only Gawith tin I've ever seen there was about 3 years ago I saw an old tin of Commonwealth (no red logo, no UPC) which I nicked off him for like $10.

lifesizehobbit · Apr 25, 2017

1983. Ft. Polk, LA. - 30 miles from water, 2 feet from hell. Weekend trips when we could pool the gas money meant Mall trips to Alexandria for a day of wandering, wish shopping and getting a taste of civilian life outside the military. A young red-headed gentleman named Dustin always greeted us at the Tinderbox when their focus was pipes, cigars and tobacco with a stand of walking sticks, some high-end chess boards and the smoker's sundries. No pewter dragons, sculptures or other flea market crap. I didn't have a dime to spend on pipes, and Dustin didn't care. Later that year, two friends gifted me a bent Savinelli, some Half&Half, a 3-way tool and some matches. Huzzah, I was a piper.
I had that pipe for better than 30 years, fell out of smoking it and gifted it to my best friend. He smoked it until he thought it was affecting his health - I think he still has it tucked away.

warren · Apr 26, 2017

I tried to single highhandedly to keep the one in Tukwila, WA opened. Twas too far, I didn't get into Sea-Tac but, three or four times a year. It was the closest tobacconist to Anchorage for many years. The poor owner tried every move he could think of to stay afloat, pipes and tobacco eventually became secondary to leather goods, porcelain, etc. and so closed its doors a few years ago.
I miss the store.

wyfbane · Apr 26, 2017

The Tacoma Tinderbox is the reason I am a pipe smoker. They had a 25% off sale on estate pipes. I got a Peterson zippo 03, a Stanwell, and a Savinelli Autograph 8. They all smoke great and I never looked back. lol

tschiraldi · Apr 26, 2017

Still my "go to" shop. Great people!
Tim

voorhees · Apr 26, 2017

Tinder Box was my first real tobacconist I ever visited. In a mall outside south Atlanta. It closed in the early nineties.

iamn8 · Apr 26, 2017

The Tinderbox here in Birmingham was in the BrookWood Mall and eventually became the Briary.... of memory serves... and it rarely does.

JimInks · Apr 26, 2017

The Tinderbox here opened in '74 and closed in 2002, a few months after the death of the owner. His daughter had no interest in the place, and ran it that way straight into closure. But, her father, the late Herb Galbraith, was a very nice, very smart man who spent a lot of time discussing pipes and tobaccos with me, and helped me learned about our hobby. Lots of great memories there.

ssjones · Apr 26, 2017

The only one I've ever seen was the one in the mall in Metarie LA. It's since moved out of the mall, but I haven't been to the new location. The two shop guys were exactly what you want - knowledgeable and slightly crusty. (just like a good, old motorcycle repair/parts shop)

ssjones · Apr 26, 2017

There are a number of videos on the original tinder box, still located in Santa Monica CA. Has anyone visited that location?

I bought a Peterson 9BC Premiere Selection a few years ago, the seller said he bought it from the founders son of this Tinder Box. It's my favorite Peterson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_7lufF4Bbk

woodsroad · Apr 26, 2017

There is a very nice Tinderbox in Haverford, Pa (just outside of Philadelphia), across the street from Haverford College. I stop in there whenever I'm at the college for work. The manager, Jim, is very knowledgeable and friendly. They are admittedly a little weak in the pipes department, but I would imagine that demand has slipped a bit from the glory days of having an all-male, pipe-smoking school within walking distance.
My first experience with a Tinderbox was at the Plymouth Meeting Mall, about 15 minutes from Haverford. I saw Richard Nixon campaigning there in '68, then we went over to the Tinderbox and my dad bought something. It smelled great. That store closed years ago.

ssjones · Apr 26, 2017

Ah, I've been to that one Woods. Small shop, wooden Indian outside? If so, I was there about six years ago and looked at a little black Caminetto bulldog that had been in the glass case for what appeared to be a long time (it was dusty!) They wanted $150 for it and I balked. I always meant to go back and see if they still had that pipe.
But, google shows I may be mixing this store with the nearby Wooden Indian Tobacco Store?

https://www.google.com/search?q=tinderbox%2C+haverford+pa&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#tbm=lcl&q=Tinder+Box&rflfq=1&num=20&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAABWQTWpcQQyEmU3I_gUv3mqOUPorSbfIFUyY4IVhjH0xnyunSL2Ghm7xqVSlnz_OXzawLXJ24ECaNc5jHWPRWzXDtIT7eaQvQOsBGSSsQ_1pzfZJ5Hj3Ltjn4cnqjrAMVmFzIDQEkaob0FK2dFXLNze5dikAovc8ZjN23aMpOHethNJROaL1n3JWCOXGThHRLbgTNecRwS6vUI4lVkNT_XIQipVW8hbKXYrlInNZdJPdAoxXVmqqqKGpzUtWj0VmV8uQtesR0HjX0Qpc82WfWoSpaN3ypLuJ1k6kedm_nqUKIt0mZ1SFbMql4gPacBcv1TXjbplL-Mqc_X27_bu9_H48P94f99f3r-f96_H6-eft_vf5-R-x5fokygEAAA&rldimm=18019566898020041170&tbs=lf:1

pappymac · Apr 26, 2017

Al - The Tinderbox in Metairie was sold pretty much lock, stock and barrel to Mayan Import and is now their 3rd location in the New Orleans area. Currently they are pretty much across the street from Lakeside Mall. Initially they were told that smoking would be allowed but one of the neighbor retailers put up such a stink about it they now can't allow smoking inside. This is even through the brick walls go floor to roof and Mayan installed big air purifiers.
The good news is that the owner's of Mayan Imports said "to hell with this" and recently bought a stand alone building another block away. The building has one tenant who is supposed to move out this summer. Mayan Imports will then start the build out to convert the entire building into a cigar and pipe shop complete with two smoking lounges. One of the lounges will be big enough for pipe club meetings.
At last word, the new Mayan Imports will be open sometime in November.

pappymac · Apr 26, 2017

My first non-drugstore pipe is a CAO Meerschaum figural that was purchased at the Tinderbox in Miami by my wife and given to me as a Christmas present in 1984.

I still have it and smoke it on a regular basis.

woodsroad · Apr 26, 2017

Al, the Tinderbox in Haverford is a pretty big shop, right on Lancaster Ave.

jpmcwjr · Apr 26, 2017

Mr. Jones: Yes, been to the Tinderbox in Santa Monica, worth a visit, as is Kramers not too far away.

mso489 · Apr 26, 2017

The Tinder Box in Raleigh is located at Crabtree Valley Mall, located at the western side of town on Route 70/Glenwood Ave. but inside the main mall. I think it opened in the mid-seventies, before I got to town in 1975. It has gone through at least two owners, I believe. They were on a corner location of the main mall concourse and about five years ago moved down a side concourse to a less conspicuous location with more square footage. The mall was the largest in town for many years, though it was sited on land by Crabtree Creek that floods every four or five years. There is now a larger mall up north in town, but it is an outdoor mall with the retail shops arranged around a vast parking lot. Crabtree Valley Mall is still an active center, mostly rented out, many kiosks in the walkway, but like all brick and mortar malls, it shows some signs of slowing. An anchor Sears store near Tinder Box is often almost empty of customers. When I walk into Tinder Box, it is usually empty. When I first discovered it, there was nearly always someone shopping pipes and tobacco or in the cigar humidor. I think lack of a smoking area is a real obstacle.

loborx · Apr 26, 2017

There was a store in my mall called Hiland's. Very similar to Tinderbox, which was at the "other" mall. I bought my first "good" pipe - a Nording 925 bent rustic from Hiland's. They had the kegs of bulk blends called such names as "Snow Flake" and "Black Gold". And I would always wander into their store whenever I was at the mall - enticed by the smell of fresh cigars and cloying aromatic pipe tobaccos. Today, they are gone, along with the Tinderbox at the "other" mall. Seems to be a trend - the death of the suburban mall. The anchor stores close down and leave a huge gaping hole in the commerce flow and then the boutique shops follow. We live in a different age with a different business model. And it sure didn't take very long to make the change. Brick and Mortar has given way to Click to Order... : puffy

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mso489 · Apr 26, 2017

There's a pipe shop in an adjoining town, Cary, that I have never visited, since it's a bit of a drive. I did buy a nice unfinished Savenelli from them at the TAPS pipe show, a panel billiard that is shading nicely. If it was a pretty drive, I'd likely do it, but it's roads with traffic engineering problems, not a recreational jaunt. When I can do a pipe shop, I go to my local independent and buy some Proper English, pipe cleaners, or break for the occasional pipe. I visit Tinder Box when I happen to be at the mall otherwise and can spare the time.

Tinder Box Memories

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