So? How many have you bought in the last month??? Huh???
Found a Couple Pipes by Lee…
- Thread starter craig61a
- Start date
When I saw Lee going on and on about these things, I thought I better jump in and get one before the interest grew for that very reason. There are a few nice ones on eBay but they are over priced. The others are abused and not worth it. I am thankful that @Briar Lee banged the drums on this particular brand of Americana as it motivated me to learn more about some other brands as well, such as Pipe Maker, Marxman, and Mastercraft. @cosmicfolklore can call it dancing, but I appreciate the homework in pipe studies as I grow my curriculum.
What makes the Lee story so compelling is that Lee had spent over twenty years toiling for another man.
During the war, the minimum wage was forty cents an hour.
Americans designed and built a fleet of B-29 Strato Fortress Boeings to deliver the entire world, from evil.
America could build a Liberty ship every three days.
The best pipe craftsmen on this planet, in New York City, had just lost their 90 cents an hour defense jobs.
More briar was coming from the Mediterranean, and our man Lee goes and buys 300 bags of the best grade of briar from a wartime holding company and launched a brand new pipe brand and if there’s one photograph of Lee, I’ve never seen it.
A Lee has an improved Kaywoodie screw stem. The joint doesn’t show, the fitting is recessed and threaded on both ends, and the stinger is removable.
Somehow Lee found a method to pour jeweler’s gold in the stars of his pipes. This can’t be easily counterfeited with a drill and white glue.
And he priced his new pipe in five, and very quickly only four grades, from Two to Five Stars.
The customer had to trust him.
Send five, ten, fifteen or twenty five dollars, for the shape and size you desired and Lee sent you a pipe.
All were slightly different.
Each was a limited edition.
Then a few years later, Lee increased the price to five dollars a star and raised the standard of polishing and made the stars with five improved points.
He made the finest pipes in the world.
A regular production 5 point star Lee medium Bullcap:
Only in America, could Lee have done it.
I won that pipe, brand new with matching five star grade sleeve in matching five star marked box, for $78.
If some imported pipe is better, I can’t see where or how. For $25 the buyer was so proud of it he never smoked it.
During the war, the minimum wage was forty cents an hour.
Americans designed and built a fleet of B-29 Strato Fortress Boeings to deliver the entire world, from evil.
America could build a Liberty ship every three days.
The best pipe craftsmen on this planet, in New York City, had just lost their 90 cents an hour defense jobs.
More briar was coming from the Mediterranean, and our man Lee goes and buys 300 bags of the best grade of briar from a wartime holding company and launched a brand new pipe brand and if there’s one photograph of Lee, I’ve never seen it.
A Lee has an improved Kaywoodie screw stem. The joint doesn’t show, the fitting is recessed and threaded on both ends, and the stinger is removable.
Somehow Lee found a method to pour jeweler’s gold in the stars of his pipes. This can’t be easily counterfeited with a drill and white glue.
And he priced his new pipe in five, and very quickly only four grades, from Two to Five Stars.
The customer had to trust him.
Send five, ten, fifteen or twenty five dollars, for the shape and size you desired and Lee sent you a pipe.
All were slightly different.
Each was a limited edition.
Then a few years later, Lee increased the price to five dollars a star and raised the standard of polishing and made the stars with five improved points.
He made the finest pipes in the world.
A regular production 5 point star Lee medium Bullcap:
Only in America, could Lee have done it.
I won that pipe, brand new with matching five star grade sleeve in matching five star marked box, for $78.
If some imported pipe is better, I can’t see where or how. For $25 the buyer was so proud of it he never smoked it.
No one wants to see me dance…. I PROMISE you that, ha ha.
They call them "stars" but really they are just holes in the top of the container so we can breathe.
I…. I… could appreciate a man’s passion for an obscure American pipe. At first I was compelled by the passion. But, the connect the non connectable dots and repetition over and over of the same long diatribes gets old. But, it may just be me. Logical fallacies drive me nuts. “Tree is taller than house, therefore all trees are the tallest thing on planet.” Makes my skin crawl.
The pipes are a mediocre bit of Americana. I get that. People forgot them fast, and remember Dr Grabow better, because…. They continued making them.
The pipes are a mediocre bit of Americana. I get that. People forgot them fast, and remember Dr Grabow better, because…. They continued making them.
A 7 point star Three Star medium Lovat, with tobacco as tasty as any other cherry blend on earth.
As the grades ascend on a Lee the briar quality slightly improves along with the level of finish.But each was bench made, by hand.
One Lee stinger (which is but doesn’t look removable) fits all. Each stem will screw in all Lee pipes. But each stem was hand turned from rod vulcanite and individually fitted and indexed to perfectly join a Lee briar, and only then, did Lee grade the pipe and perfectly inlay real gold stars in the stem.
The grades all had matching star graded boxes and matching star graded sleeves, and with 7 or later 5 point stars.
No early screw stem (last production was stamped star screw stem then Dunhill type push stem) 7 or 5 point Two Star Grade Lee I’ve seen has any fills or bald spots but they are seldom spectacularly grained. 7 point start finishes are nearly matte. Polishing improves on 5 pointed star Lees.
Every Lee, had to have been oil cured.
A new one is not coated, but smokes on the first fill like it’s been smoked a hundred times, and they are a sweet and cool smoker, every one.
Lee advertised a Briarlee second, first at $1, $1.50, and $2.50 and later at $4. All but a few have cheaper Dunhill type push stems, a few with Kaywoodie type screw stems.
The Lee catalogs had special deals, such as three Three Stars for $20 and six for $35, and such.
The biggest bargains I’ve seen are spectacular push stem Briarlees.
My theory is seconds of two and three stars became Pipe Makers for other sellers, and eventually only four and five star Lee seconds became the $4 Briarlee.
Too bad there isn’t more information, only the pipes to examine.
Hi Briar Lee, maybe you can answer this for me. Why in the world would anyone want to smoke a pipe with a stinger in it? All it does is create turbulence and makes for a wet smoker. I don't understand why anyone would collect pipes that pretty much all have stingers. If stingers were any good why is it that no artisan I have ever heard of has used one.
Well, since I have two in hand to look at, here's my take...
The screw in join at the shank/stem: From a manufacturing standpoint, the female end on the shank would have been easier to manufacture, because it did not require additional thin "collar"; and the removable stinger male end would been easier to manufacture also. On Kaywoodies this a cast piece, and would have required additional work to remove casting flash, not to mention the facilities for molding the cast stingers.
Briar quality: on the two pipes I have, I don't see quality briar... just run of the mill quality ebauchons. I would equate them to Kaywoodie's second line, Yello-Bole. And even my Yello-Boles have an edge on briar quality compared to these. Post WWII briar supplies were scarce, and if you weren't sitting on mountain of briar, expensive. The briar harvesting industry and associated supply lines in post WWII took some time to get back to it's former self.
The stem is made of a lesser quality vulcanite than a Kaywoodie, and in my estimation is a casting, not hand cut rod vulcanite.
These were machine/factory made pipes, not some guy sitting at a bench cranking out each one by hand...
"Oil cured"? So what does oil curing do to a pipe? Have an explanation?
Seriously doubt they were oil curing briar...
It's documented that Briar Lee pipes were being contract manufactured by Arlington Pipe Co. for whatever entity that was "Lee".
"Pipes" by Lee was a mail order seller, like a Sears-Roebuck of pipes...
The screw in join at the shank/stem: From a manufacturing standpoint, the female end on the shank would have been easier to manufacture, because it did not require additional thin "collar"; and the removable stinger male end would been easier to manufacture also. On Kaywoodies this a cast piece, and would have required additional work to remove casting flash, not to mention the facilities for molding the cast stingers.
Briar quality: on the two pipes I have, I don't see quality briar... just run of the mill quality ebauchons. I would equate them to Kaywoodie's second line, Yello-Bole. And even my Yello-Boles have an edge on briar quality compared to these. Post WWII briar supplies were scarce, and if you weren't sitting on mountain of briar, expensive. The briar harvesting industry and associated supply lines in post WWII took some time to get back to it's former self.
The stem is made of a lesser quality vulcanite than a Kaywoodie, and in my estimation is a casting, not hand cut rod vulcanite.
These were machine/factory made pipes, not some guy sitting at a bench cranking out each one by hand...
"Oil cured"? So what does oil curing do to a pipe? Have an explanation?
Seriously doubt they were oil curing briar...
It's documented that Briar Lee pipes were being contract manufactured by Arlington Pipe Co. for whatever entity that was "Lee".
"Pipes" by Lee was a mail order seller, like a Sears-Roebuck of pipes...
Marketing... Cleaner,drier, more healthful, whatever. Plus most people back then would have just smoked the hell out of a pipe without taking the time clean it out, and when it was hopelessly plugged with tar, cast it aside and buy a new one.
My Lee Five Star is something of a disappointment, not because it’s not a wonderful pipe, it’s because even a Two Star Lee from the 5 point star era is such a perfect, beautiful, work of the pipe maker’s art.
FWIW...
I am not, nor have I ever been, Briar Lee, LOL.
But, along with Queen Victoria, "We are Amused."
I do wish I could tell stories like he does. But, then they would be about my Dunhills.
If I had a Yokum Silver Dollar for every time.... well, that's for a different thread.
I am not, nor have I ever been, Briar Lee, LOL.
But, along with Queen Victoria, "We are Amused."
I do wish I could tell stories like he does. But, then they would be about my Dunhills.
If I had a Yokum Silver Dollar for every time.... well, that's for a different thread.
The strangest part of all is that some of the story was provided to our good friend @Briar Lee from a poster here on this site as a bit of satire poking fun at briar lee for drawing out a story without any references or citations and stating it as fact. Some of that parody is now repeated by Mr. Lee as a part of greater fabrication of Mr. Lee the Pipemaker.
When the myth becomes the legend, print the legend.
Actually if you are referring to me everything I said was true, all comments based on facts gleaned from extensive research into contemporaneous records just as Jesse said. Except the bit about Lee being allergic to dogs, that was a tiny joke. If I had wanted to I could easily and truthfully have added that Lee was 5' 7", weighed 150 pounds, and had brown eyes, red hair, and a scar on the right side of his groin.
I have several pictures of Lee, but just to nip this in the bud none are of the scar.
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I bid on a shiny factory made full bent Italian pipe with a factory rustication carving the other day marked BRAIRLEE but missed the bid when it topped $30.
I wanted a replica “homage” Lee pipe.
It no doubt looks as much like a real New York City made Briarlee as my gorgeous Charatan Trafalgar with a hand cut double comfort saddle bit, that has FRANCE discretely and perfectly stamped in faint lettering on the bottom of the stem at the joint of the shank, looks like the real coin made in London.
Every day for nearly twenty years I’ve scanned eBay for briar pipes, and it took me quite a few Pipe by Lee bargains to examine and smoke them and determine there’s not any American production pipe that comes close to a Lee, with the only exceptions being 1930’s Super and Flame Grain grade Kaywoodies and some Weber Golden Walnuts, and an occasional Marxman, Custombuilt, or of all things some White Spade Dr. Grabow Golden Deluxe production with screw stems or Adjustomatic stems, and not many of those.
There had to be a Mr. Lee, whatever his real story was. It was a time of Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose, Henry Kaiser and the Kaiser automobile, and Preston Tucker and the Tucker Torpedo.
The first Lee buyers wanted a Packard with air conditioning.
Lee got away with living his dream, by selling pipe dreams.
And Tommy Duncan sang while Bob Wills led the Texas Playboys, to provide the soundtrack.
In 1946 Lord (soon to be Baron) Inverchapel was smoking second class pipes, compared to a $25 Lee Five Star grade.
Kaywoodie was headed downhill, while Lee reached for the stars.
I wanted a replica “homage” Lee pipe.
It no doubt looks as much like a real New York City made Briarlee as my gorgeous Charatan Trafalgar with a hand cut double comfort saddle bit, that has FRANCE discretely and perfectly stamped in faint lettering on the bottom of the stem at the joint of the shank, looks like the real coin made in London.
Every day for nearly twenty years I’ve scanned eBay for briar pipes, and it took me quite a few Pipe by Lee bargains to examine and smoke them and determine there’s not any American production pipe that comes close to a Lee, with the only exceptions being 1930’s Super and Flame Grain grade Kaywoodies and some Weber Golden Walnuts, and an occasional Marxman, Custombuilt, or of all things some White Spade Dr. Grabow Golden Deluxe production with screw stems or Adjustomatic stems, and not many of those.
There had to be a Mr. Lee, whatever his real story was. It was a time of Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose, Henry Kaiser and the Kaiser automobile, and Preston Tucker and the Tucker Torpedo.
The first Lee buyers wanted a Packard with air conditioning.
Lee got away with living his dream, by selling pipe dreams.
And Tommy Duncan sang while Bob Wills led the Texas Playboys, to provide the soundtrack.
In 1946 Lord (soon to be Baron) Inverchapel was smoking second class pipes, compared to a $25 Lee Five Star grade.
Kaywoodie was headed downhill, while Lee reached for the stars.
Absolutely. While I don’t hold Lee’s pipes in the same esteem you do his story is definitely not without interest. I’ll put a summary together when I have the chance.
In the meantime here’s a photograph of him from around the time he launched Pipes by Lee.
