How NOT to Refresh a Lee

[Briar Lee]

Usually I have no trouble making Lees look new. These totaled $70 for the pair delivered, and both looked smoked exactly one time.

But the stems were oxidized and needed aligning, and there was something like petrified wax from the factory on both.

I used Everclear, grapeseed oil, 4/0 steel wool and now, behold the results.



The bent chubby is a Bull Moose, the straight one a Pot.

They had to have been a special run, hand rusticated for the Two Star, and hand rusticated plus carved panels on the Three Star.

They were in near perfect shape, except they’d been stored in an old smokehouse.

There’s a ghost of Morton’s Sugar Cure.

If you’ve ever smelled country hams hanging, you’ll know the aroma.

But I know Five Brothers that specialize in exorcisms.

 

[telescopes]

I hope those Lees will never see the inside of a bowl. They are too unique.

 

[Briar Lee]

I hope those Lees will never see the inside of a bowl. They are too unique.

Those are display quality Lees.

 

[telescopes]

Now this is how a Lee should look. This large apple 7/3 Lee has NEVER been steel wooled or sat in a basket, LOL. Those latest Lees you got are keepers for sure.

 

[mingc]

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

I'd like to add Winter's Bone. It's an excellent movie set in the Ozarks and the meth industry there.

 

[Briar Lee]

View attachment 201090
Now this is how a Lee should look. This large apple 7/3 Lee has NEVER been steel wooled or sat in a basket, LOL. Those latest Lees you got are keepers for sure.

Here are three I grabbed that are in extremely high condition, never steel wooled or oiled.



I think Lees were waxed at the factory, or some kind of protective coat of something was placed on them. If used that wears off, and 4/0 steel wool, grapeseed oil and beeswax is one way to slick them up again.

Regardless whether he accomplished the goal, Lee was trying his damndest to make the finest pipes on this earth, grade for grade.

The pair of Custombuilt style pipes are truly jewels, and close to unsmoked. But the factory wax (or whatever it was) had petrified and the stars had tarnished, the stems were oxidized.

Whatever I’ve done to them hasn’t hurt them any, for sure.

 

[jpmcwjr]

English only, please, and if new, an introduction would be a good thing.

 

[anotherbob]

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.

wait brairville fixes briars? Does that mean that Humanville fixes humans? And do we mean repair them or fix like the vet did to my cat? Oh man it's too much to consider.

 

[Briar Lee]

I found my three star Lee Custombilt for comparison, and this no name pipe, was intended to be a counterfeit Custombilt made by Lee, but didn’t make the grade, due to fills.

Lookie here:

Lee sold no name seconds, this one with Briarlee full disc Kaywwodie style mortise.



By the way, all smokehouse ham odor is long gone from my Three Star Custombilt copy.

 

[bullet08]

Another reason why screw in tenon/stinger is no longer being used. Someone might use a vice and snap it off by an "accident".

 

[Sobrbiker]

The three Lees I’ve got were all clocked easily with an application of heat to threaded insert, and grasped with a small pair of water joint pliers, the jaws of which were padded with electrical tape-no vice necessary.
Same as my ‘woodies that have needed it…

 

[verporchting]

I’m still stuck on “South of Bug Tussle”. I have questions….

 

[Briar Lee]

I’m still stuck on “South of Bug Tussle”. I have questions….

Civilization in Missouri began along the Missouri River, and progressed north and south.

Humansville is about a hundred miles south of the Missouri River. There were no roads. The land had to be surveyed first and the Osage had spent centuries dealing with the Spanish and French.

They didn’t scalp settlers, they demanded and got large dowries for their beautful daughters. George Catlin said many Osage Indians were well over six feet tall.

My ancestors rode horses, like centaurs.

And in every photograph I have of them the men look dangerous, tall, slender and well mounted, even as old men.

The Sons of the Condederacy get all the ink, and glory, and Quantrill and his raiders are legends.

My ancestors kicked their ass, we won the war, and built little towns like Sexon, which later was named Hamlet, and in my father’s time Bug Tussle.

And when I was a small child my grandmother who weekly wrote a column for The Index used to get a kick out of taking me out back of our home and asking,,,,

Can you show me Bug Tussle?

I’d point across the fields and say right there, Grandma, can you see it?

And she’d say I just see an old house way over yonder.

Let’s go to the milk barn and have your father and his friends tell us all about Big Tussle the way it was.

And in due time ——

(The actual real life “mayor of Bug Tussle” was an old man named Emmet Molder. He was tickled half to death to regale my grandmother with stories about Bug Tussle)

 

[didimauw]

Civilization in Missouri began along the Missouri River, and progressed north and south.

Humansville is about a hundred miles south of the Missouri River. There were no roads. The land had to be surveyed first and the Osage had spent centuries dealing with the Spanish and French.

They didn’t scalp settlers, they demanded and got large dowries for their beautful daughters. George Catlin said many Osage Indians were well over six feet tall.

My ancestors rode horses, like centaurs.

And in every photograph I have of them the men look dangerous, tall, slender and well mounted, even as old men.

The Sons of the Condederacy get all the ink, and glory, and Quantrill and his raiders are legends.

My ancestors kicked their ass, we won the war, and built little towns like Sexon, which later was named Hamlet, and in my father’s time Bug Tussle.

And when I was a small child my grandmother who weekly wrote a column for The Index used to get a kick out of taking me out back of our home and asking,,,,

Can you show me Bug Tussle?

I’d point across the fields and say right there, Grandma, can you see it?

And she’d say I just see an old house way over yonder.

Let’s go to the milk barn and have your father and his friends tell us all about Big Tussle the way it was.

And in due time ——

(The actual real life “mayor of Bug Tussle” was an old man named Emmet Molder. He was tickled half to death to regale my grandmother with stories about Bug Tussle)

It's really hard to moderate, when I forget which room I'm in...

Those stingers are a pain in the butt. I'll never buy a pipe with one. Sure, they "can be" clocked "easily". But I prefer "not to" at all.

 

[Briar Lee]

It's really hard to moderate, when I forget which room I'm in...

Those stingers are a pain in the butt. I'll never buy a pipe with one. Sure, they "can be" clocked "easily". But I prefer "not to" at all.

Those stingers pull out with your fingers, usually, and always with a pair of pliers.

Lee used a bunch of different style stingers with always the same slot for the rear tenon. I have a bunch in a drawer somewhere. A few I’ll leave in, just because.

The last Lees used a standard push stem.

The metal one must have cost more.

The front mortise screw was screwed and glued.

The rear tenon was screwed but NOT glued, although tars can act as glue.

It is the perfect pipe joint.

On the Briarlee type front mortise you can see a silver ring like a Kaywoodie.

On an early Lee, even a lot of stamped stars, the joint is hidden. It looks like a push stem.

The screws reinforce the shank. They don’t get tight or loose, they unscrew to clean, and last the life of the pipe. If they go past center heat the rear screw and reclock it.

And Lee barely mentions them in his literature.

Marx never bragged he used only the grown in the mountains of Algeria grade briar, either.

Go figure. They didn’t consider it a sales point.