The Pipe You've Owned Forever
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A Tinder Box Verona was my first pipe. It's traveled thousands of miles with me over the past 37 years and endured many bowlfuls of substandard tobacco. It's still with me and still going strong!
In 1977 while stationed at Andrews AFB:
And now:
In 1977 while stationed at Andrews AFB:
And now:
A gently bent GBD from the 1960's. I was at the U of Alaska and purchased it from the Woolworth's store in Fairbanks. I believe that the pipe cost right around $20.00. That and a pouch of Sail got me started on the pipes. I had been an accomplished smoker of cigarettes and cigars for a few years prior. It still gets a bowl or two a week smoked.
woodsroad: I very much miss my very first pipe which I had until a few years ago. A leather coated Ropp with a meer lining. That was a grand pipe. I suspect my kid, when organizing the estate sale, will locate it some where in the house or garage. She'll go, "Yeeewwwww!" and into the garbage can it'll go.
Tinder Box sold me my first real pipe too -- a no-name "wall" pipe I paid $8 for:
I got this during my second year in college, fall of 1980. I'd spent the previous summer touring the Midwest and Eastern U.S. as part of a 7-member Christian singing group that traveled as ambassadors for our small, liberal-arts college. (I played piano and guitar. We even recorded an album.) In our set, we did one humorous song called "Lucas McGraw" by Petra, which has a line in it about Lucas finding God and throwing away his corncob pipe. So we thought it'd be funny if we all had corncob pipes that we'd toss behind us when we got to that line.
One day when we had some time off, I picked up some tobacco and actually tried the pipe for myself. Didn't love it! But I thought I was onto something. So once we finished our summer tour and went back to college, I knew I wanted to pick up a "real" pipe. And that was this little nut-brown beauty. She's still with me.
Bob
P.S. For the record, I don't believe that Lucas McGraw should have felt compelled to throw away his pipe when he found God.
I got this during my second year in college, fall of 1980. I'd spent the previous summer touring the Midwest and Eastern U.S. as part of a 7-member Christian singing group that traveled as ambassadors for our small, liberal-arts college. (I played piano and guitar. We even recorded an album.) In our set, we did one humorous song called "Lucas McGraw" by Petra, which has a line in it about Lucas finding God and throwing away his corncob pipe. So we thought it'd be funny if we all had corncob pipes that we'd toss behind us when we got to that line.
One day when we had some time off, I picked up some tobacco and actually tried the pipe for myself. Didn't love it! But I thought I was onto something. So once we finished our summer tour and went back to college, I knew I wanted to pick up a "real" pipe. And that was this little nut-brown beauty. She's still with me.
Bob
P.S. For the record, I don't believe that Lucas McGraw should have felt compelled to throw away his pipe when he found God.
A meerschaum straight bulldog. It was my dad's and dates back to the early 1940s. The original amber stem broke long ago and I had it replaced with an acrylic one in the early 1970s (amber was already unavailable due to its flammability). Still keep it in it's silk-lined leather "violin case", smokes like a dream.
The pipe I've owned the longest (forever) is A pipe I carved. I had a couple pipes before I decided to make my own but I've long since lost them. For nearly twenty years this was the only pipe I smoked until the internet came along and I developed a case of PAD and began collecting.
This no-name whose only stamp is "Czech". My first ever pipe purchase (March of 2013, not very old) that started on aromatics but has now been converted to an English smoker.
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I'm afraid that I fit into the same boat with you, homeatsea. I'm a recent pipe convert. My first pipe was a Wessex from JR. They were having a sale: Pipe with two tins of Sutliff for $34. That was last September. I do like the pipe, and it's in my rotation...with a dozen others!
"Forever" is a relative term since I only started smoking a pipe in 2007. The first pipe I got was also a Tinderbox box pipe. The stamp is Carolina Briar. It's a smooth bent billiard with an extremely shiny finish. It isn't my prettiest pipe, and I rarely smoke it anymore due to the fact that it is now my "aromatic pipe" (since that's what I started smoking with it in the beginning). But I can't see myself ever getting rid of it since it's the pipe that started me in this hobby we all enjoy so much.
I had a friend who had just started smoking a pipe and I was always interested in them since finding out my grandfather had smoked one. I decided I'd pick up a pipe and try it out, since at the time you could smoke in restaurants in NC and there was an Irish Pub downtown (Ri-Ra) that my friend and I loved to go to for a few pints. I thought a pipe would make things even more enjoyable. And how right I was!
I remember going into the Tinderbox and buying the pipe after talking to the man working at the counter about wanting to try pipe smoking. He suggested a corncob but I had to have a briar. I think I paid about $35 for the pipe and I bought a leather pipe pouch, a Czech pipe tool, and an ounce each of Wilsire (Tinderbox's rebrand of Lane 1-Q) and another tobacco called 101 (which was 1-Q mixed with something else).
I had a friend who had just started smoking a pipe and I was always interested in them since finding out my grandfather had smoked one. I decided I'd pick up a pipe and try it out, since at the time you could smoke in restaurants in NC and there was an Irish Pub downtown (Ri-Ra) that my friend and I loved to go to for a few pints. I thought a pipe would make things even more enjoyable. And how right I was!
I remember going into the Tinderbox and buying the pipe after talking to the man working at the counter about wanting to try pipe smoking. He suggested a corncob but I had to have a briar. I think I paid about $35 for the pipe and I bought a leather pipe pouch, a Czech pipe tool, and an ounce each of Wilsire (Tinderbox's rebrand of Lane 1-Q) and another tobacco called 101 (which was 1-Q mixed with something else).
I have two pipes in this category. Both were bought around 1974. One was a Ben Wade freehand that is just gorgeous. I recently gave it to a guy in our pipe club who really likes Ben Wade pipes. The second is a Caminetto Business with the white mustache. I still have that pipe. Excellent smoker.
Fred Diebel is a venerated name in pipe making, tobacco, and quality smoking products. His shop in Kansas City's Country Club Plaza was a feast for the eyes and nose. Fred worked behind the counter making and selling quality pipes. Karl Ehwa blended for him, and both Mary and Mike McNeil knew him well. He sold me my first good quality pipe, a City de Luxe in April, 1961. I bought this bent billiard from him in 1965 , probably for around $35-$50 – a significant sum to pay for a pipe in those days. In the half-century that I have owned it, it has afforded me many hours of smoking pleasure, and I think warmly and fondly of Fred whenever I smoke it.
The GBD Canadian was purchased in the Ala Moana pipe shop in Honolulu in November 1969. It was my first Canadian, my first GBD, and I paid $20 for it. I dropped it bad broke the stem, and the current one is a replacement.
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The GBD Canadian was purchased in the Ala Moana pipe shop in Honolulu in November 1969. It was my first Canadian, my first GBD, and I paid $20 for it. I dropped it bad broke the stem, and the current one is a replacement.
This is a Wilke which I bought new around 1958. It cost $20. Today it would be a very prized piece, with straight grain all around the bowl. It has been smoked very heavily over the years, so that today it is only good for one or two smokes a month.
My first pipe, bought at Tinder Box in 1975 or 76, is a bent pot sitter with a saddle stem, a rather unique shape,
which was probably made by Chapuis-Comoy and stamped Tinder Box St. Ives. I think it was about $16. I still
have it; it still smokes well; oxidation on the stem is slight. A theme in this thread is that many of us bought
our first pipes at Tinder Box, and we still have them. Tinder Box is a chain, but obviously has done missionary
work for pipe smoking.
which was probably made by Chapuis-Comoy and stamped Tinder Box St. Ives. I think it was about $16. I still
have it; it still smokes well; oxidation on the stem is slight. A theme in this thread is that many of us bought
our first pipes at Tinder Box, and we still have them. Tinder Box is a chain, but obviously has done missionary
work for pipe smoking.
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