I didn't pick up on the pouring of hot metal into a small cavity in vulcanite until the above. Thanks, beef!
Not gonna happen that way, unless there are new laws of physics.
Not gonna happen that way, unless there are new laws of physics.
Found a Couple Pipes by Lee…
- Thread starter craig61a
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Remember when he said your avatar looked like a little dude in a baseball cap ?
Yes - they do... Add one of the members seems to have fascination with rim jobs...
I dunno, while I miss that lil dude, the current avatar on my phone looks like a video still from someone’s go pro as they scooter down a street in Vietnam
Some type of sheet stock that was punched in the shape of the stars, then possibly gold washed. From a fabrication standpoint, that would be the most economical. I suppose unless there was vulcanite that could resist 2500 F+ temps back in the day. And there were probably little Keebler Elves with tiny little crucibles pouring the gold stars... The rumor I've heard was that Mr. Lee lost his pipe manufacturing facility in an unfortunate schmelting accident.
If there was, only one man could make it. Of course I'm talking about Lee...
EDIT: Could have been rod stock like many of the logos at the time.
The stars must be some type of brass. Why? They tarnish. The tarnish can be polished off. Gold? I can’t imagine there is a detectable amount. As for as quality of briar and vulcanite. My answer after examining three Lees is…. No. I have found fills and other blemishes. However, overall, they are attractive pipes and there are not without quality. $30 is a fair price. As far as the lore goes…. Well, sure, why not offer Lee Lore. If you happen to have bought 60 plus’s Lee pipes you better damn well find something about them worth crowing about.
Omg you remember that?!? Lmao. Gone but not forgotten huh? Lol
There would be setup and minimal run charges to extrude rod stock, plus it would distort when sheared, whereas maybe less than $100 for punch dies back then. And sheet stock would have been cheap. I've been involved in metal fabrication directly and indirectly for over 30 years. Many of the logos at the time where most likely punched as well, as embossing could have been accomplished in the same step.
Punch press - Wikipedia
As far as the stars being made of brass. I didn't notice any verdigris (oxidation) on the stars of the pipes I got, and in the condition and age of said pipes, I would expected to see at least some.
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So, can someone school me on where I might be able to buy a Lee pipe?
The history, the legend, the lore, the attraction. I want it all. Where - do - I - buy -in?
The history, the legend, the lore, the attraction. I want it all. Where - do - I - buy -in?
I’m not a jeweler, or a pipe maker.
But if you look at same period Kaywoodie pipes, there’s always a perfect shamrock inlaid into the vulcanite stem. It wasn’t cast that way, it was filled, pressed, or somehow inlaid. I’ve seen those shamrocks come out. I’ve tried correcting that with various white glues, never with perfect results.
It is incredible that Lee ever made one pipe that bears his brand. It was 1946. The war was over, everybody thought the Depression would return when the government quit borrowing and spending money like tomorrow would never come, 16 million soldiers and all the untold millions more that built all the war material were fresh out of work.
“Excuse me, Mr. Lee, but you’d like a loan from this bank to start a brand new pipe factory?”
“Yes, I intend to produce the highest priced pipes on earth, and my cheapest pipe will be the same price as the cheapest Kaywoodie, and my best pipes will cost $25, which is $10 more than a Dunhill.”
“Where will you buy your materials?”
“I intend to outbid everybody else to win 300 bags of briar held by a wartime purchasing company, and I’ll buy vulcanite on the market, as needed”
“So what will your pipes different, and better than a Kaywoodie or a Dunhill?”
“I’ve discovered a way to inlay gold stars into my pipes. Here, look at these samples. My cost to make this $3.50 One Star pipe is less than fifty cents, and to make this $25 Five Star costs about dollar. I think most sales will be $10.”
“Who is going to pay $3.50 or $10 or $25 for a pipe, Mr. Lee?”
“Can you show these pipes to your secretary out front, and see what she thinks?”
That’s how Lee borrowed the money.
Sixteen million wives, mothers, and sweethearts had a returning hero to buy a present for Christmas, 1946.
Lee’s greatest sales gimmick was those pretty gold stars.
So, in your avatar photo - are those ashes or crumbs on your suit jacket?
Can you tell me more about Lee’s greatest sales gimmick?
Ashes from one of over sixty Lees I keep going all the time, speckle my suit coat.
Lee pipes were luxury consumer products, launched in 1946.
Kaywoodie was the largest seller in the world of pipes that cost $3.50, $5, and $10. Lee matched those and added a $15 and $25 pipe in his first advertisements.
That cost a lot of money, to launch Pipes by Lee. Since Lee had been an employee of pipe companies for about 20 years he wasn’t wealthy. He had to borrow the money.
When you look at any Lee pipe it’s really not as flashy grained as a pre war Kaywoodie Flame Grain. Few equal a pre war Super Grain, as examples of great briar. But there are no bad examples of briar in Lee pipes. Lee knew how to make good pipes, but so did a lot of other companies.
A Lee pipe has the same screw stem as a Kaywoodie with two improvements that don’t amount to much. The screw stem is recessed in a Lee and you can’t see a silver ring. It looks like a push stem. And the Lee stinger is removable, usually using pliers. Lee didn’t advertise those features.
A Lee stem is high quality vulcanite, and I’ve never found a bad one. The buttons are all perfectly made, likely by aid of a machine. Lee didn’t mention or brag about the vulcanite he used.
Lee oil cured his briar. Every Lee tastes sweet from the first bowl. So did Dunhill, back then. Lee didn’t tout that as a selling point.
What Lee advertised, the entire gimmick, the big selling point, was that the more money you paid, the higher quality the pipe and the more gold stars you got on the pipe.
The overwhelming majority of early Lee pipes found today for sale were the $10 Three Star grade.
They aren’t brass. They don’t turn green.
They could be highly malleable gold alloy. You’ll find them dulled a little like a low carat piece of gold jewelry.
Since the pipes were hand finished and sanded smooth the stars had to be added to a finished pipe. With a jeweler’s loupe you can see where some splashed over on the black vulcanite and others where vulcanite is over the stars. Rub with steel wool and that fixes it. On the later 5 point stars, they are all perfect out of the box. Lee improved the process in some way.
Lee advertisements said to Reach for the Stars.
And I’ll gladly defend Lee, in this regard.
If you send him ten dollars you received a perfect, beautiful, well made pipe, with three pretty gold stars, that will be a great smoker.
If you spent $25 you got a prettier pipe, with five pretty gold stars instead of three.
And if you didn’t want to buy a Lee pipe by mail order, you spent your money on myriads of different pipes in all the drug stores.
Lee’s biggest asset had to be a mailing list of customers that produced lots of $10 orders.
That’s really a bigger mystery than how he inlaid the stars.
In case Briar Lee missed what I was smoking earlier:
***What Are You Smoking, December 2021?*** :: Pipe Tobacco Discussion
2015 Heinrich Dark Strong from my Kaywoodie white briar rustic Dublin. cheeki breeki The man, the myth, the legend
pipesmagazine.com
I would propose that during the war years, the US Govt. was secretly trading with aliens from outer space.
An alien spaceship was stranded in vast wasteland of the western US in the Jemez mountains outside of Los Alamos, NM. They needed to source uranium ore in order to refuel their warp engines.
Since the Manhattan project was in full swing and there was a source of fissionable material available to them, the aliens transferred their knowledge of nuclear fission via a mind meld with Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, and paid the US Govt. in gold pressed latinum for the fissionable material they would need to depart the earth.
At war's end, scientists could find no use for the gold pressed latinum, and the US Govt. sold it off. Mr. Lee was there to take advantage of the sale of this wonderous, albeit useless material, and viola, he was able to use it to pour his hand poured gold stars into the vulcanite cavities.
This information was recently declassified by the Biden administration.
And now you know the rest of the story... Good Day!
An alien spaceship was stranded in vast wasteland of the western US in the Jemez mountains outside of Los Alamos, NM. They needed to source uranium ore in order to refuel their warp engines.
Since the Manhattan project was in full swing and there was a source of fissionable material available to them, the aliens transferred their knowledge of nuclear fission via a mind meld with Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, and paid the US Govt. in gold pressed latinum for the fissionable material they would need to depart the earth.
At war's end, scientists could find no use for the gold pressed latinum, and the US Govt. sold it off. Mr. Lee was there to take advantage of the sale of this wonderous, albeit useless material, and viola, he was able to use it to pour his hand poured gold stars into the vulcanite cavities.
This information was recently declassified by the Biden administration.
And now you know the rest of the story... Good Day!
There is scant evidence and if there weren’t so many pipes out there it would be hard to believe.
This is a shot from a an early Lee Three Star that’s languished on eBay for months at $69, with no buyers:
This is how you find them. That’s a nice early Three Star medium bent Rhodesian that will clean up to perfect.
That pipe sold for $10 in the late 1940s, which is roughly $150 in our money today.You can replace that pipe for $150, but it’s not going to be oil cured, it won’t have the aluminum stinger (wooohpee!) and it won’t have that high dollar matte oil finish Lee gave all his production.
But how did Lee inlay those stars?
They are deep, and won’t rub off.
More importantly, how did he sell so many Three Star pipes when his customers could walk into any drug store and buy a Kaywoodie Super Grain for half the price?
My hunch is those pipes were an additional line offered by housewives selling Avon, Tupperware or high end pots and pans.
That would make a Lee pipe like a Cutco pocketknife.
Cutco - Wikipedia
How else do you explain so many out there, in high condition, if they weren’t gifts?
On the first day of World War Two the United States of America lost nearly all of it’s supply of natural rubber from Southeast Asia, and every “standard battleship” stationed at Pearl Harbor was knocked out of commission, all eight.
Sometimes, I wonder if our generation today could take such a whipping and go on to to win the war.
In the event our grandfathers invented synthetic rubber, built plants to make it, and built ten new fast battleships and rebuild six of the eight knocked out on December 7, 1941. For good measure the USA built atomic bombs from scratch and a fleet of super bombers to deliver them.
There were exactly four brand new cars built in 1944. Can you imagine the hollering today if the USA only built four cars?
But we built thousands of ships in three years, and ten thousand military planes a month instead.
Who knows why, the American government secured 300 bags of good briar during the war.
Our man Lee had to win the bid to buy it.
Lee was the Preston Tucker of American pipe manufacturers.
Preston Tucker - Wikipedia
Except, Lee got away with it slick.
I hope he bought a brand new Packard, or at least a Cadillac.
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