Tinderbox Restoration

[celticbrewer]

Hey all,
Had a lot of fun with this one - tinderbox I found on ebay - looked in rough shape but I liked the grain. First time attempting briar dust fills for nicks on the pipe. Let me know what you all think!
Before

After

Close up on the fill

 

[weezell]

GREAT job there Brother! Wish I had that kind of talent...

 

[donjgiles]

Super nice job!!

 

[puffy]

Great Job..

 

[mso489]

Those Tinderbox house pipes were excellent; my first pipe, which I still have and smoke, is a Tinderbox St. Ives, smooth bent pot. Still cookin' just fine.

 

[celticbrewer]

Thanks all! It came together well
mso, just had my first smoke in it -- amazing! Really appreciate this brand now.
All this one says is "london briar" not sure if there is much history to it as far as when it was made etc.

 

[mso489]

Not to repeat myself too much, but house pipes are most often from tobacconists and pipe shops who want to promote pipe smoking, so they want to sell really good smokers, even while they keep the price pretty low for first-time pipe smokers. So you tend to get a pipe above its price point. Some might have a fill or two, but most are high quality briar with well-drilled airways, and not bad looking. And many house pipes are better than that.

 

[derhammer]

Sweet! Nicely done :clap:

 

[agnosticpipe]

Nice pipe, and nice restoration too! I have a couple of Tinder Box pipes, both excellent smokers. One is a Verona which was made by Mauro Armellini for Tinder Box stores, and the other is a Unique which was made by Charatan for Tinder Box. Unless you're a brand name junkie, these sub-brands are found on the estate market for very reasonable prices and are hard to beat!

 

[bnichols23]

Especially true for the Verona, Orley. It was much better quality & higher line than most of the ones like Selected, St. Ives , Unique, etc. At the time I worked for them I had no idea who Mauro was, or would've [probably appreciated his talent if I had. But I knew I liked the Veronas (had 3-4 of them BITD). Last summer I got incredibly lucky on eBay & picked up a couple of unsmoked ones in separate auctions -- still original packaging on both! I've got 6-7 currently & every single one of them is as fine a smoke as any I've ever had, AND they've got my nostalgia factor from my time behind the counter!
Plus after finding out about Armellini on these fora I made a point to start looking up ones he & family made under his own name after striking out, & they've all been stellar as well. Between them & the Veronas I've got 14-15 of his & it doesn't stop me from looking for more. }
The TBI house pipes I've seen over the years may have some flaws here & there, but I've only seen one since '74 that I personally wouldn't have had due to pits/fills. The McDonald's of pipes, possibly, but they did give a decent smoking experience to a lot of new smokers, far better than they'd've gotten from cheapo-beepo drugstore crap.
Bill

 

[ophiuchus]

Cool Tinderbox pipe. Nice job with the cleanup! ::

 

[crashthegrey]

Very nice. That grain was well worth preserving! Good on you.

 

[patiobum]

Very nice indeed !!

 

[ron44]

A lot to be said for the pleasure & enjoyment of restoring one of those tinderbox pipes. Great smokers and pretty nice house pipes. They also bring back many nice memories of my early years of pipe smoking. Visiting local Pipe shops, the smells of the many tobaccos and eye-balling so many different factory pipes. It all leads to a lifelong enjoyment of the pipe smoking hobby.

Anyway, in a nutshell congratulations on your nice job of reclaiming an older pipe & putting it back on the smoking rack.

 

[headhunter]

You are the master, pretty pipe

 

[logs]

Hard to believe this is a tinderbox pipe. Very nice grain.

 

[Stickmaker1958]

Can anyone tell me why I can’t see the pics.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Pretty sure it's because they were uploaded to the old site, and those photos are not linked- hoping they will some day.

If the OP would repost a few here on the new site, problem solved.