My new Spigot

[Briar Lee]

The other day a fellow pipe enthusiast showed off his ancient Lowes spigot he claimed was worth more than all my stash of Lee pipes combined.

It surely was a pretty thing, although at a cost too dear for me to pay.

I cannot say that Lee ever made, a spigot pipe. If he did I haven’t seen one yet, and if there is one, it’s sure to be worth more than $30.

I’ve sorta had my eye on spigot pipes on eBay ever since, because I don’t get jealous, I try to get my own whistle to play with, you know?

Sure enough I found myself a genuine hand made spigot pipe today, only $25, delivered. The mortise might be lucite, or celluloid, but all in all it should scratch my itch for a spigot pipe, pretty well.


Other than the vanity of the thing, I wonder what all the reasons are, for a spigot pipe.

Before Lee invented the recessed, hidden screw stem it might have been the best way to avoid any problems with a cracked mortise.

But there’s an extra step and extra gadget involved in making a spigot pipe, which means the customer has to pay more, for his whistle.

I was always cautioned growing up, not to pay too much for my whistle, but $25 does seem very reasonable.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

A decent reason: You can disassemble a spigot, clean, and put it back together while still warm—something not recommended with a tenon interface.

 

[OzPiper]

Regrets for raining on your parade, but your pipe is NOT a spigot
It is a handsome pseudo army or military mount with a horn shank extension.

Your pipe has a tenon, not a tapered stem where it enters the mortise - hence NOT a true army/military mount.

A true spigot has a metal-clad "male" stem end.

If you love this pipe, that's all that matters. Spigot or not

Apologies for being a pedant.

 

[captainsousie]

Regrets for raining on your parade, but your pipe is NOT a spigot
It is a handsome pseudo army or military mount with a horn shank extension.

Your pipe has a tenon, not a tapered stem where it enters the mortise - hence NOT a true army/military mount.

A true spigot has a metal-clad "male" stem end.

If you love this pipe, that's all that matters. Spigot or not

Apologies for being a pedant.

Being pedantic is what we're all about here, and you are correct about the classification.

 

[Briar Lee]

Regrets for raining on your parade, but your pipe is NOT a spigot
It is a handsome pseudo army or military mount with a horn shank extension.

Your pipe has a tenon, not a tapered stem where it enters the mortise - hence NOT a true army/military mount.

A true spigot has a metal-clad "male" stem end.

If you love this pipe, that's all that matters. Spigot or not

Apologies for being a pedant.

Well, then I’ll have to go right on searching for my very own spigot pipe.

If the definition of a spigot is a metal mortise, with a metal tenon, I guess I already own about a hundred spigot Lees.
But if you can see the spigot I guess if don’t count.

 

[OzPiper]

No, No, No !

That's a screw tenon.
You just can't make up your own definition of what a spigot is.

You will have to keep looking for one.
Good excuse for an attack of PAD.

 

[OzPiper]

Cadogan-era Loewe spigot with silver work by Les Wood

 

[Ahi Ka]

@Briar Lee check out the work @cosmicfolklore does. Instead of looking for a new pipe, pay him to get one of your lee’s pimped. Also, just to mess with @OzPiper get him to fashion the spigot so it twists/screw in.

 

[ashdigger]

 

[ashdigger]

No, No, No !

That's a screw tenon.
You just can't make up your own definition of what a spigot is.

You will have to keep looking for one.
Good excuse for an attack of PAD.

 

[OzPiper]

Cadogan-era Loewe spigot with silver work by Les Wood

@Briar Lee
If you look at that Loewe, it is stamped "SPIGOT" under the "L & Co" in the oval.
No disputing it IS a spigot.

 

[Ahi Ka]

View attachment 166776

That’s a beauty. I love the idea of a spigot, but more than any other mounting style I find underwhelming. I think though, your example has clarified for me that what I really like is the all metal square/diamond shank to round stem transition

 

[OzPiper]

That’s a beauty. I love the idea of a spigot, but more than any other mounting style I find underwhelming. I think though, your example has clarified for me that what I really like is the all metal square/diamond shank to round stem transition

A "sibling" to Tim's (@ashdigger) offering

 

[solideogloria86]

@Briar Lee here's one you'll love. A Peterson System Spigot 307 with Sterling Silver mount.

https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=494397

 

[brian64]

@Briar Lee check out the work @cosmicfolklore does. Instead of looking for a new pipe, pay him to get one of your lee’s pimped. Also, just to mess with @OzPiper get him to fashion the spigot so it twists/screw in.

You may have really hit on something...I think it'd take the pipe world by storm:

Cosmic's Pimped Lees with Screw in Spigots

 

[solideogloria86]

You may have really hit on something...I think it'd take the pipe world by storm:

Cosmic's Pimped Lees with Screw in Spigots

Reminds me of this thread.

Cosmic's Cuttlebone Pipe Band :: Pipe Talk

I finished this one a few weeks back, before I got sick, and just got busy prepping for art show season. This was just for me, and to play with an idea that I had. Bird enthusiasts may know cuttlebone as those things that can be gotten from pet stores to give their beloved birds a bit of...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[Briar Lee]

I was able to buy a beautiful true spigot mount Nording for about half the new price, or $85.


The older I get, and more I learn about pipes, the more I’m convinced that Lee made the best pipe in the world.

Styles and fashions change, but people and pipes don’t change and never will.

In 1946, a Two Star Lee cost the equivalent of $75 today, and it had a hidden internal aluminum screw stem that offered every advantage of a spigot mount, except the buyer couldn’t see it.

Picking out Dad or her sweetheart’s Christmas pipe, she paid $10 to get the extra beauty of Three Star grain.

If a spigot mount had been in style, then she’d have had Lee spigot mounts to choose from, at $10 and up.

Carved figural pipes were all the rage in the late forties.


Lots of luck duplicating a Lee replacement stem.

 

[Ahi Ka]

I recant my earlier statement about diamond shanks and circle stems.

 

[Briar Lee]

My family never throws much away, and I have a 1973 Sears Christmas Wish Book.


Hardly anything in the 1973 Sears Christmas catalog would be salable today except for men’s pipes and hand tools, and women’s jewelry, all about the same whistles and toys.

 

[burleybreath]

That’s a beauty. I love the idea of a spigot, but more than any other mounting style I find underwhelming. I think though, your example has clarified for me that what I really like is the all metal square/diamond shank to round stem transition

How about an octagon shank? Marty Pulvers thought this was a Cristom; not that I have anywhere near his knowledge, but there seems a possibility that it's a Ser Jacopo. Really don't know, but it smokes great.