Schulte

Max Schulte (†) - the name is sometimes qouted "Shulte" - operated a pipe & tobacco shop in Springfield and later in Maplewood, NJ.

A customer remembers:

"My first pipes and tobaccos came from Max's shop in Maplewood (I think it was on Bloomfield Avenue near Hy's Cheesecake) back around 1965. The smell on entering either of these stores was sublime. I remember him well standing at the polishing wheel just off the counter, wearing a long workman's apron, working on one of his characteristic classic shapes. The wall behind his tobacco counter was filled with rubber clips holding these as well as Savinellis, Sasienis, and Stanwells. I think he was actually on the front edge of the Danish trend. Max could polish a pipe in five minutes & have it come out looking new. He also blended an Oriental/Balkan blend (I think) called "Maritza" that was the finest of its kind (that I ever encountered) in those days. Max was always willing to share his extensive knowledge of pipes and tobaccos with any customer, even a young know-nothing like me, and seemed genuinely glad of the company. BTW, the going price for a half-pound of Maritza in those days was about seven dollars. It was worth every single cent."

As Schulte’s son Howard reported, later a skilled pipe repair man himself, Jack H. Weinberger (→ JHW Pipes), a retired lawyer from Virginia, often sat in his father’s workshop for hours and hours, enjoying his pipe and a mug of coffee and simply watching the father working on his pipes. This was JHW’s "training" to become a pipemaker!