How NOT to Refresh a Lee

[Briar Lee]

Lee devised and used the most perfect screw stem ever placed on a factory pipe. It’s close to the older Kaywoodie system with these improvements:

1. It’s hidden. When assembled the pipe looks like a push stem. This is because a full star grade Lee has the aluminum mortise screwed in slightly under the level of briar in the shank.

2. The recessed mortise is deeply threaded, not pressed in. Later Lees also must have been glued. They don’t pull out, and are installed for life.

3. The rear screw tenon is deeply threaded, not ribbed and pressed in. If you are careful, and the stem isn’t welded with tars, it’s easy to adjust without heat.

4. A Lee stinger is removable.

This is not to say a Lee screw stem is idiot proof. This very dirty $15 Lee Pot turned out to be an early 7 pointed star Three Star, so badly grimed up I washed it in the sink and used one of my wife’s scrubbing pads to clean it up.



The pipe cleaned up beautifully, except the over clocked stem was stubborn. I should have soaked it in Everclear, but instead put too much heat from a butane lighter and it snapped off in the vice.



Which is a pity, because this one has about of nice grain as a Lee Three Star had. Notice how deep Lee stained his pipes. Just a dab of grapeseed oil restores the briar to the original hue.




Out of over a hundred Lees I have two now, that need the screw in tenon replaced.

Both, were nobody’s fault but my own.

The other one I drilled out a stuck stinger one drill size too many.





These will likely wind up as display pieces, because even today, a perfect condition Lee is about $30 to replace.

Nearly unsmoked Lee Three Star
$31 this week.



It’s Two Star auction mate, only $30.99.

 

[AJL67]

Beautiful pipes that’s a shame. At least it looks fairly easy to get fixed up.

 

[telescopes]

Briarville.

 

[didimauw]

Briarville.

If he had only used the 0000 steel wool, he could have avoided all of this....

 

[Grangerous]

Beautiful grain

 

[telescopes]

Mr. Lee was sitting in his barn waiting for his Amish tenant, reviewing the parts of the Bible that were red lettered, and while ignoring everything else that was written in black, opened a can of Campbell's soup, all while watching an old rerun of Ellie Mae just strutting around in a forgotten episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies." Had he kept his eye and both hands on the pipe stem attached to that Lee Pipe, rather than Ellie Mae and whatever else, I dare say that the pipe would not have been abused and snapped in this manner.

But abused it would have been, later. Where is Pipe Protective Services when you need them? Someone needs to tell them about those bowls of pipes kept in unprotected climate controlled rooms, bins, and trucks.

 

[telescopes]

I have several Lee pipes I will one day offer for sale. I will NOT sell them to any Hillbilly Solicitor anywhere near or in the Ozark's.

My Lee pipes, like all of my pipes, have been well kept and cared for and will NOT see the inside of a bowl of crammed pipes that have been stripped using steel wool and covered in oil afterwards. If it sounds obscene, it is because it is obscene. It is a shame that the purchase of old, beat up pipes offered for under $20.00 puts them in a situation where it is possible that they will be sniped up and rubbed bare with 0000 steel wool, only to be covered in Grapeseed Oil and then fingered and rubbed - ogled by a man of wealth and privilege. Missouri. All the worst stories come from this state.

Gone Girl
Bobbie Jo Stinnett
Ozark - Netflix Series
Missouri and Meth
Missouri - Murder Capital - almost
Name an embarrassing member of congress-most likely came from Missouri

Of course, all of this is offered in good fun - I wouldn't want to upset the Deerslayer.

​

 

[Briar Lee]

When all my cares have ended, that boy on the truck will fall heir to a lot of nice old Lee pipes.

The scripture says, by his works ye shall know him. I have no fear anyone will turn up their noses at the 98% of Lees I don’t ruin and slick up with steel wool and grapeseed oil and store in farm tubs. My son will harvest a rich crop of pipes, he did not labor for.

I hope he gets a hunnert dollars apiece and spends it all on the things young men spend money on.

 

[telescopes]

I hope so too.

 

[Briar Lee]

I hope so too.

That photo shows him on my truck on Elmer’s 60.

In 1936 my grandfather’s brother Elmer got tired of drought, and hard times, and he and his wife Cora had an auction.

The stock and equipment sold fairly well, but his wealthy sister Eva paid $3.50 an acre for the sixty acres.

My father had to pay Eva $15 an acre in 1944 to buy it back.

Daddy said Elmer slaved like a rented mule working around Bakersfield and he never saw the lights of Humansville again.

A Four Star Lee was worth an acre of land a half mile South of Bug Tussle, in 1946.

Some of us, don’t ever forget, you know?

Here’s to Uncle Elmer and Cora Mae.

 

[craig61a]

Lee devised and used the most perfect screw stem ever placed on a factory pipe. It’s close to copied from the older Kaywoodie system with these improvements differences:

1. It’s hidden. When assembled the pipe looks like a push stem. (Except for the metal flange, no different than a Kaywoodie)
2. The recessed mortise is deeply threaded, not pressed in. (No different than a Kaywoodie, except in later models)
3. The rear screw tenon is deeply threaded, not ribbed (For her pleasure) and pressed in. (No different than a Kaywoodie, except in later models)
4. A Lee stinger is removable. (Manufacturing cost savings)

Fixed it...

 

[Briar Lee]

Fixed it...

It’s so close I wondered if KB&B couldn’t have sued for infringement.

Yes, a Lee is an improvement, especially the removable stinger.

But it’s an improved Synchro Stem.

There’s a school of Kaywoodie collectors who claim Kaywoodie never even applied for a Synchro Stem patent, that’s only a trademark registration stamped on the Kaywoodie stingers, so in essence any company willing to spend the extra money for parts and labor to duplicate a Kaywoodie Syncho Stem was free to try it, they just couldn’t name it Synchro Stem.

kaywoodie-Synchro Stem Patent

A couple of weeks ago I posted having doubts the Synchro Stem design patent was applied for in 1929 and granted in 1931. I was sure hoping someone w

www.tapatalk.com

My entire patent legal education in law school was the same as my education on maritime law. Don’t advise a client about it, don’t touch it, stay away from it, and refer it to a a real patent or maritime lawyer.

But the fellow who invented the string weed eater lost his patent because it was obvious. He only kept the name Weed Eater.

What is it called?! Weed Eater, String Trimmer, Weed Wacker or something else...

We all know the tool used to trim grass along our lawn, but what is its proper name? Is it a weed eater, a weed whacker, a string trimmer, strimmer or what!?

www.yourgreenpal.com

So maybe Lee didn’t copy anything any more than every maker of a push stem copies a Dunhill.

 

[craig61a]

It’s so close I wondered if KB&B couldn’t have sued for infringement.

Yes, a Lee is an improvement, especially the removable stinger.

But it’s an improved Synchro Stem.

There’s a school of Kaywoodie collectors who claim Kaywoodie never even applied for a Synchro Stem patent, that’s only a trademark registration stamped on the Kaywoodie stingers, so in essence any company willing to spend the extra money for parts and labor to duplicate a Kaywoodie Syncho Stem was free to try it, they just couldn’t name it Synchro Stem.

kaywoodie-Synchro Stem Patent

A couple of weeks ago I posted having doubts the Synchro Stem design patent was applied for in 1929 and granted in 1931. I was sure hoping someone w

www.tapatalk.com

My entire patent legal education in law school was the same as my education on maritime law. Don’t advise a client about it, don’t touch it, stay away from it, and refer it to a a real patent or maritime lawyer.

But the fellow who invented the string weed eater lost his patent because it was obvious. He only kept the name Weed Eater.

What is it called?! Weed Eater, String Trimmer, Weed Wacker or something else...

We all know the tool used to trim grass along our lawn, but what is its proper name? Is it a weed eater, a weed whacker, a string trimmer, strimmer or what!?

www.yourgreenpal.com

So maybe Lee didn’t copy anything any more than every maker of a push stem copies a Dunhill.

More specious arguments…

It’s been fairly well established that the Syncrostem patent was issued in 1931-32. An obscure snippet from a couple of chumps on a chat board hardly qualifies as a school of Kaywoodie collectors…

Arguing that a functionally visually equivalent piece of hardware is an improvement is ridiculous. And after WWII practically every manufacturer was sticking those little removable metal bits in their stems.

 

[telescopes]

More specious arguments…

It’s been fairly well established that the Syncrostem patent was issued in 1931-32. An obscure snippet from a couple of chumps on a chat board hardly qualifies as a school of Kaywoodie collectors…

Arguing that a functionally visually equivalent piece of hardware is an improvement is ridiculous. And after WWII practically every manufacturer was sticking those little removable metal bits in their stems.

The difference with the Lee is that you don't have to heat it to sync it. That is an improvement in anybody's book. And the stinger does detach. It could be argued that a recessed fit is a better fitment as well. I have both Lees and Kaywoodies. There is a real difference in the fitment And the overall look.

 

[Briar Lee]

More specious arguments…

It’s been fairly well established that the Syncrostem patent was issued in 1931-32. An obscure snippet from a couple of chumps on a chat board hardly qualifies as a school of Kaywoodie collectors…

Arguing that a functionally visually equivalent piece of hardware is an improvement is ridiculous. And after WWII practically every manufacturer was sticking those little removable metal bits in their stems.

I’ve tried finding the Synchro Stem patent and can’t:

The number listed on Kaywoodie stingers isn’t a patent number, it’s a trademark registration.

They might be right, I can’t prove otherwise.

——

The basic obviousness inquiry was set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Graham v. John Deere nearly 50 years ago, and remains good law even today. In order to determine whether an invention is obvious one must work through this analytical framework: (1) Determine the scope and content of the prior art; (2) Ascertain the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art; (3) Resolve the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art; and (4) Consider objective indicia of non-obviousness (i.e., are there secondary considerations of non-obviousness that suggest a patent should issue despite an invention seeming to be obvious). See Understanding Obviousness: John Deer and the Basics. While this seems easy enough, the application of these factors or considerations is exceptionally difficult.

Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in KSR v. Teleflex obviousness was rather mechanical. With obviousness we are asking whether there is any combination of prior art references that when put together would be the invention in question. In other words, could an ordinary mechanic create your invention or was there some kind of non-obvious innovation. Defining the concept with using the concept is hardly illuminating, but that is the way the law of obviousness works. This is true because what is obvious to some large degree is in the eye of the beholder.

—-

The patent date on the early Prince Albert cans was likely a lie. There is no patent issued I can find on July 30, 1907. Later cans with a patent number reference a much earlier patent for infusing molasses in low grade tobaccos.



Listing patent pending, when there is no patent pending, used to be a common practice.

When you ponder the issue, isn’t injecting two very shallow screws in a pipe as obvious as having machines bore a mortise and mould a tenon?

The reason Lee screwed his mortise and tenon into the shank and stem might be because a new company didn’t have the resources of KB&B to use machines.

 

[craig61a]

The difference with the Lee is that you don't have to heat it to sync it. That is an improvement in anybody's book. And the stinger does detach. It could be argued that a recessed fit is a better fitment as well. I have both Lees and Kaywoodies. There is a real difference in the fitment And the overall look.

Alrighty then…

 

[craig61a]

If he had only used the 0000 steel wool, he could have avoided all of this....

Tactical Steel Wool…

 

[telescopes]

I love a pitcher of Hurricanes at Pat O'Brians in New Orleans.

 

[Briar Lee]

I grew up with baling wire, WD-40, 3 in 1 Oil, Marvel Mystery Oil, Naval Jelly, Seal All, Bar’s Leak, duct tape, and 4/0 steel wool being part of the Ozark American repair kit in everybody’s tool shed. I’m older than shops and garages.



And ever since I’ve left the farm I’ve heard those worthwhile repair products slandered, and felt sorta sorry for folks who aren’t trained in their proper use.

Of them all, Naval Jelly is the one I’ve wondered why the do gooders haven’t outlawed.



Naval Jelly will take the rust off a trailer hitch ball like an ice cream cone melting on the 4th of July.

 

[woodrow]

I have several Lee pipes I will one day offer for sale. I will NOT sell them to any Hillbilly Solicitor anywhere near or in the Ozark's.

My Lee pipes, like all of my pipes, have been well kept and cared for and will NOT see the inside of a bowl of crammed pipes that have been stripped using steel wool and covered in oil afterwards. If it sounds obscene, it is because it is obscene. It is a shame that the purchase of old, beat up pipes offered for under $20.00 puts them in a situation where it is possible that they will be sniped up and rubbed bare with 0000 steel wool, only to be covered in Grapeseed Oil and then fingered and rubbed - ogled by a man of wealth and privilege. Missouri. All the worst stories come from this state.

Gone Girl
Bobbie Jo Stinnett
Ozark - Netflix Series
Missouri and Meth
Missouri - Murder Capital - almost
Name an embarrassing member of congress-most likely came from Missouri

Of course, all of this is offered in good fun - I wouldn't want to upset the Deerslayer.

View attachment 200467​

The Lee Killer Cometh…