What Is The Tinder Box Pipes Story ?

Charatan did make pipes specific to the TB line back in the late 70's I believe. There are some good smoking pipes to be had from Tinderbox if you know what to look for.

My first pipe was a Tinder Box St. Ives, a bent pot with a saddle stem, a really elegant version of a pot. Tinder Box

was kind enough to offer a historical opinion that this was a French pipe. They have had a number of different

sources for their house pipes over the years, of course. I still have the pipe; it still looks handsome; and it still smokes

well. I would guess I purchased it about 1977, maybe a little earlier. And yes, it is still in my rotation.

Hia, Gary:
I can't speak to all of the Tinder Box house burners but the ones marked Tinder Box Unique are exclusive to Charatan. I have two and they're great smokers.
I also have a monster full bent with the inscription "No Name Pipe - Made in England" underneath the shape. It was ID'ed at the Kansas City Pipe Show several years ago as a Charatan second made for the Tinder Box. (It's in my weekly rotation.)
If you've got one enjoy the hell out of it. I purchased mine several years ago on the Bay for around ten bucks each. They've been getting pricier the last 18 months. I rarely see one listed anymore for less than twenty five.
Found another Kaywoodie for you. I'll send pix tomorrow.
Fnord

Here is a list of pipe seconds. Several listed were name brands made for Tinderbox :
Manufacturer
Lines
Seconds
Barling Michel

Butz Choquin Dr. Boston

Charatan Ben Wade (at one time), Mount Battens, Tinder Box Unique, Falstaff

Comoy Every Man, Town Hall, Guildhall, Mansion House, Sunrise, Tinder Box Royal Coachman, Newcastle, Royal Falcon, Gresham Giants, Hyde Park

Dunhill Parker, Hardcastle, Savory's Argylle

GBD Irwin, Dr. Plumb, Digby, City Deluxe, English Knight, Country Club

Kriswill Kriscon

Lorenzo Tinder Box Monza

Mastro De Paia Calibano

Nording Aalborg

Peterson Irish Seconds, Shamrock, Erica (system), Captain Pete's, Kinsell

Sasieni Two Dot (somewhere between a second and a first), Claret (a 60's era One Dot, but not a First), Mayfair, Old England, Englandaire, Fantail, Craven, Pickwick, Sandurst, Windsor, Royal Stuart, His Royal Highness, Henley Club, Berkeley Club

Savinell Oscar Fiamatta, Capitol, Estella

Stanwell Royal Danish, Royal Guard, Royal Sovereign, Danske Club, Danish Sovereign

Upshall Tilshead

I have a Tinder Box Verona I bought back in the '70s that was supposedly made by Mauro Armellini.

Verona pipes were made by Armellini. I have one and it smokes very well.

Both the Verona line and the Napoli line were made by Mauro Armellini.

So a Tinder Box Unique Made in England with the white dot is possibley be a Dunhill 2nd. If I understand this thread right.

Part of the house pipe mystique is that the "house" for which the pipe is made is entitled to obscure the source to some degree or another. I think retailers that have house pipes made often source them from a sequence of pipe makers, and the retailer's historical memory often is imprecise as to where specific pipes were made. For years, Iwan Ries had house pipes made by Benton of good Algerian briar. For a long time, the pipes were pictured on their web site but were labeled "out of stock." Now they have pipes made in Italy and I still haven't figured out which company is supplying them.
I have a house pipe stamped Thompson, presumably Thomson Cigar Inc., and it is also stamped "West Germany," so it likely goes back to the 70's or 80's. I wrote Thompson to see if they knew the maker who sourced this, but received no answer. I suspect they simply don't know. The folks who might remember are retired or simply gone.

My Verona (Armellini) is a great smoker's and looks really nice! Well shaped and well grained.
Tim

I bought a Tinder Box house pipe on a bright and sort of oddly cool Saturday afternoon in the late summer of 1983 in New Brunswick NJ. I had go into the store for the express reason of picking up a few ounces of Wilshire to hold me over until I could get to my usual Tobacconist which was John David Ltd in Rockaway NJ. As I recall the Tinder Box was a sort of dimly lit classy affair which was in direct contrast to my usual tobacconist which was a located in a mall and lit in blinding fashion similar to a HS cafeteria. As my eyes adjusted to the dim interior I spied a vertical glass pipe rack with some very nice looking stoves in it. Most of them were rustic, black with a red mahogany color. They were of various sizes and shapes but they were all pretty nice and sported black acrylic stems. So I inquired about their make and quality..The young lady behind the counter proceeded to tell me that they were pipes expressly made for The Tinder Box and that this current batch had only just recently arrived. They were also extremely affordable; If I recall correctly they were somewhere around $25 1983 dollars. So I asked to see one and after some careful examination I selected a medium billiard with a slightly more than a 3/4 bend, which is a style I was and still am very partial to. To my 23 year old eyes it was a thing of beauty. It was light, well balanced, rugged looking and seemed to sit effortlessly between my teeth no matter what I was doing. Over the next few months, as I broke the pipe in, it rapidly became one of my very faves sitting squarely between my more expensive pipes in my usual rotation.
Flash forward several months to the late winter of 1984. I was dating a a very attractive young blonde with an exceptional amount of sweater meat and a rather large derriere, who had a wonderfully sweet personality and a charm that I simply could not resist. This lovely young thing later consented to be my wife and we have been together for over 30 glorious wedded years, but I digress. Back to the pipe...Late one evening while leaving a local restaurant that I will not name, as it is the butt of many NJ jokes, but I will say the the initials were E.T. I was packing the little bent billiard and upon giving it a good stuffing I proceeded to put the pipe, or so I thought, into the side pocket of my "Members Only" winter coat. That way I could enjoy it on the ride home after dropping of the large breasted blonde at her parents home. Well much to my chagrin while I was engrossed in conversation and appreciation for my future wife, the little tinderbox must have fallen from my pocket and into the snow, on the way to the car without my noticing. Needless to say that when I realized what had happened it was already too late to go back and search for it. After all it was just a $20 pipe and I could always get another one. Unfortunately that never happened and I have regretted it many times over.
Over the years I have lost or broken more than a few pipes; some a lot more expensive than that $20 dollar Tinderbox house pipe. But for some odd reason the breakage or loss of the said more expensive pipes have not haunted me nearly as much as the loss of the little Tinderbox.
So after all that long winded background noise....I have to ask...does anyone know who made those rustic little gems in the early to mid 1980s? Were they just a one off shipment from some no name manufacturer or did they have some kind of pedigree? All I can say is that the example I had and loved for that short time was a wonderful little pipe and I have been looking for it's like for years now. The closest I been able to come are some of the lower priced rustic Petersons. They are a close match except for the vulcanite stem which I am not to big a fan of. Sorry for the long post but this something that has been on my mind for many years.