A Lee Four Star and Bonus Two Star Omm Paul

[Briar Lee]

Today I won a five point star era Lee Four Star and had to buy a bonus Lee Two Star Oom Paul to get it.


I'm waiting for jguss to give us all the definitive Lee history, but subject to further proof otherwise, I believe that Lee tried to improve his pipes when he made the change over from a seven pointed star to a five pointed star. I believe the pipes are just a tiny bit better polished on the stems, and just little better grained briar was used. Certainly, there was no quality decrease involved in the transition from the seven pointed stars to the five pointed stars, and they were still inlaid, and still of low carat jeweler's gold.

I believe, that the Four Star Lee above is among the rarest of all Lee pipes, more rare than the Five Stars.

The Two Star Omm Paul is unusual only that you rarely see any fully bent Lee pipes.


But $123 delivered bought both in a competitive auction.


I'd value the Four Star at $100, due to rarity.

 

[didimauw]

Great looking pipes as always! The bulldog stinger (female end) doesn't sit flush with the end of the shank. Does that affect airflow?

 

[Briar Lee]

Great looking pipes as always! The bulldog stinger (female end) doesn't sit flush with the end of the shank. Does that affect airflow?

No, it shouldn’t.

The Four Star is unusual in that the mortise is counter sunk.

Here’s the standard.


But the seal is made by the threads, not rubber against wood. Even worn out, this Lee still seals tight and lines up, although there’s a visible gap between stem and shank.



Seriously, Lee devised the best way known to join stummel and stem.

It must cost too much to duplicate or else we’d see it today on higher end pipes.

 

[telescopes]

I saw the four star and was responsible for helping to run up the price, LOL. But at the price it was going for, it simply wasn't worth it. I have three stars that are much superior to the four star that was being offered. I've come to the conclusion that the number of stars is arbitrary to some extent.

 

[Briar Lee]

I saw the four star and was responsible for helping to run up the price, LOL. But at the price it was going for, it simply wasn't worth it. I have three stars that are much superior to the four star that was being offered. I've come to the conclusion that the number of stars is arbitrary to some extent.

Although I disclaim being a pipe collector (I’m an accumulator of the pipes I could not afford back when I was a kid) I wanted two things.

1. The only Lee Four Star I’ve ever seen.

2. The only Lee Omm Paul I’ve ever seen.

Sometimes I think Lee was a money whore, but that’s not an unusual fault if he was, and he did sell very nice, high end pipes.

Jguss shattered my idea, first that Lee was just a front for Wally Frank, and then he displayed articles where Lee pipes were sold in batches on displays to retailers.

But since we know, that at least some customers shopped in pipe shops and chose a Lee from displays in a pipe shop just busting with cheaper pipes than $5, our man Lee simply had to offer more than extra stars to catch customers.

Jguss has shown that Pipes by Lee, were retailed from a $1 Briarlee to a $10 Three Star.

It’s no mystery that a customer who ordered in Lee’s best pipe would splurge $25 instead of $15. That’s human nature. There are a lot more One of One Thousand Winchesters that cost $100 than One of One Hundred Winchesters that cost $50.

But let’s suppose Lee ran a special.

Buy a genuine $15 Four Star, and you get a $5 Omm Paul thrown in free.

There are boxes, with Lee pipes inside.

The pipes I bought, look stained to match.

At least in the literature, a Four Star originally only came in natural.

 

[ashdigger]

No, it shouldn’t.

The Four Star is unusual in that the mortise is counter sunk.

Here’s the standard.

View attachment 167024
But the seal is made by the threads, not rubber against wood. Even worn out, this Lee still seals tight and lines up, although there’s a visible gap between stem and shank.

View attachment 167027View attachment 167028

Seriously, Lee devised the best way known to join stummel and stem.

It must cost too much to duplicate or else we’d see it today on higher end pipes.

Seriously, what flavor Kool-Aid are you drinking?

It laughable some of definitive statements you make.

I’m sorry and no offense intended but do you actually believe this stuff?

 

[sasquatch]

It said "NEW AND IMPROVED" right on the gawd damn box!

So it must be.

 

[Briar Lee]

Seriously, what flavor Kool-Aid are you drinking?

It laughable some of definitive statements you make.

I’m sorry and no offense intended but do you actually believe this stuff?

Look at a normal, standard Lee mortise and tenon.



Notice the mortise is flush with the end of the shank.

Now look at the difference. The mortise on the Four Star is counter sunk.


That Four Star sold for the same price as a London best, $15.

I have a $25 Five Star that has a flush mortise.

Just guessing, but the reason to make it flush is to reinforce the shank.

My new Four Star has a slight amount of briar that’s proud of the mortise and thin, and not reinforced by the aluminum mortise.

Did Lee make it flush for style?

It was deliberate, but who can say why?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Maybe it had more to do with aligning correctly?

 

[Briar Lee]

Maybe it had more to do with aligning correctly?

I agree, that is the most likely reason to not make the mortise flush.

Lee no doubt used every modern machine available in 1946 to help meet consistently high quality standards for serial production of pipes in a brand new factory.

For a dollar, Lee made a conventional push stem Briarlee.

The base Two Star Lee cost five times that much, and while it’s better it’s not five times better.

Two things had to be done by skilled hands, perhaps using jigs.

Those deeply inlaid 7 pointed actual low carat jeweler’s gold stars were not put there by machines.

Then a skilled artisan had to drill and insert not one, but two screw in aluminum fittings and line up the stem with the shank, and set it over counter clockwise at about 11 o’clock so it would wear in and line up over time.

Maybe the buttons on the bits were also completely hand made, but each one is so perfect I suspect Lee had a machine to make them perfect.

A Star Grade Lee shouldn’t be compared to a modern hand made artisan pipe.

Compared with all the other factory pipes in 1946, it really was the best pipe in that world, then.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Seriously, Lee devised the best way known to join stummel and stem.

Linkman's had that base covered as early as 1931.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Jguss shattered my idea, first that Lee was just a front for Wally Frank

If it makes you feel any better, Castello would've gone out of business 60+ years ago if not for Wally Frank's intervention.

 

[Briar Lee]

Linkman's had that base covered as early as 1931.

View attachment 167081

Note Lee’s improvements.

Linkman’s mortise disc end must be sanded to fit. Lee’s is an internal, hidden screw. Lee used those on his cheaper line of Briarlee, but not until the bitter end on a Star Grade.

What you can’t see is the Linkman type had grooves and was glued , while Lee somehow made his finely threaded. Lee had to, in order to get it to stay inside the shank. Sometimes an early Star Grade will come unscrewed, but Lee must have quickly used a screwed and glued mortise.

The tenon of a Linkman is one piece.

A Lee has a removable stinger.

Lee about had to use a special grade of vulcanite that could be threaded , to accept the screw tenon. A Lee can be adjusted using just a pair of common pliers. Kaywoodie tenon types are grooved, not screwed, and adjustment has to be made by heating the stem.

Also, a Lee seals even if the flat stem end doesn’t make full contact with the face of the aluminum shank, which a Lee didn’t have, only wood. Lee’s gadget is air tight using only the threads.

I’ve always wondered if Lee disregarded existing patents because of his improvements.

If Lee had a patent, he never bragged about it.

Which is very un Lee like.