I can’t seem to stop, either.
I just blew $40 on this large squat bulldog and I already own a bunch.
That’s a dark stained saddle bit 7 pointed star version.Question for Pipe Makers About Lees
- Thread starter Briar Lee
- Start date
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I just blew $40 on this large squat bulldog and I already own a bunch.
That’s a dark stained saddle bit 7 pointed star version.
Don't touch that stain. I fear you might uncover flaws that some men think don't belong on such a pipe!
No need to do anything but use Everclear and a soft rag to clean up a barely smoked, almost new Lee.
I love this forum because some guy took a Dremel tool to a Lee Three Star and removed the stain.Wow. No wonder he said it fought back.
You’ve seen the famous photos of Dunhill workers burning off stains?
Lee would have needed a blowtorch.
Its all subjective.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Does a pipe with 360degree angels hair straight grain smoke better than a poorly grained one ?
Is it worth hundreds of dollars more because it looks better ?
Is a Danish designer pipe worth $3000-5000 ?
Obviously there are those who think they are, and are willing to part with their money for one.
We've gone over this ground ad nauseam, so I really don't see any reason to keep rehashing this topic.
We all buy/collect (call it what you will) pipes for various reasons.
You are obviously besotted with Lee pipes.
Just stop bludgeoning everyone with your monomania.
I dunno, I think I’m beginning to like it. Maybe I’m suffering from the pipeworld’s version of Stockholm Syndrome.
I would expect, at a minimum, an updated Pipedia page to come from all of this. Especially from those with time on their hands to undertake such an endeavor.
There is a "Show Us Your Lee Pipes" thread
@Briar Lee should upload photos of his entire collection of Lee pipes
That should keep him occupied for at least several weeks
I promise I will.There is a "Show Us Your Lee Pipes" thread
@Briar Lee should upload photos of his entire collection of Lee pipes
That should keep him occupied for at least several weeks
Lees and Briarlees plus Pipe Maker.
Understand, there are Lees in every car, truck, camper and cubbyhole at my office, garage, home, and farm.
Most of them, have three gold stars.
If they were all Dunhills, they’d be worth 20 acres in Spout Spring Hollow.
My great grandmother had her new husband buy her that 20 acres for $50 in 1876. I have the original deed.It’s a right nice place, to smoke a pipe and contemplate things that appreciate, you know?
A Lee was made approximately the same way, except:
1. Lees had far better tenons and mortise than a push stem.
2. Lees had actual 9k jeweler’s gold stars inlaid on the stem, instead of plastic.
3. Lee’s stain is so deep it requires a Dremel tool to remove.
I don’t know for certain, but Lee likely had automatic shaping machines the to rough shape the pipes, like a Kaywoodie. The last finishing was by hand, though.
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They are not "burning off" stain they are setting the stain.
Why are the Lee tenons and mortises far better?
How did Lee get the stain so much deeper? A 5000 psi pressure vessel?
I'm guessing a non logically fallacious answer won't be forthcoming...
Why are the Lee tenons and mortises far better?
How did Lee get the stain so much deeper? A 5000 psi pressure vessel?
I'm guessing a non logically fallacious answer won't be forthcoming...
To make either a Dunhill or Lee, a block of briar and a rod of vulcanite was the starting point.
In 1946 both boiled their briar in oil.
For their cheapest dollar pipes Lee used the traditional push stem like Dunhill.
Beginning at $5 Lee used a hidden, recessed aluminum mortise that screwed into the shank. In the stem Lee used a hidden, recessed, and user adjustable screw tenon. Then Lee stuck on a removable stinger.
A Lee is never too tight or too loose, shanks never crack, tenons never break. It is by far the best, and most expensive way to join a pipe stummel to a stem. Plus, it looks like a push stem, and there is an optional stinger.
Lee must have had stained oil, for curing.
Lee stain is so deep you’ll nearly ruin one removing the stain.
Plus Lee offered grades.
Only the $5 and $10 grade were stained at all. At $15 and $25 (most expensive in the world) a Lee is polished but never stained.
Dunhill survived, Lee died.
But in 1946 a Lee was the best pipe in the world.
There you go again making wild, unsubstantiated claims.
There are numerous manufacturers eg Barling, Comoy, Charatan, Sasieni, Loewe, GBD, BBB, Weingott whom you have not mentioned, probably have not heard of and have never held one of their pipes.
Please do us all a favour. Search out those pipes. Smoke them, THEN give us your informed opinion.
Stop parroting the Lee pipes advertising copy ad nauseam as if it was the goddam truth.
There you go again making wild, unsubstantiated claims.
The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.
I must admit the only British shotgun mentioned in Dunnegan was a Purdey and the only British pipe a Dunhill, and the only Swiss watch a Rolex. There were, and are many others, with less successful American marketing plans.There you go again making wild, unsubstantiated claims.
There are numerous manufacturers eg Barling, Comoy, Charatan, Sasieni, Loewe, GBD, BBB, Weingott whom you have not mentioned, probably have not heard of and have never held one of their pipes.
Please do us all a favour. Search out those pipes. Smoke them, THEN give us your informed opinion.
Stop parroting the Lee pipes advertising copy ad nauseam as if it was the goddam truth.
America once upon a time had protective tariffs.
My parents were married in August 1947.
To my father’s mothers disgust my mother decided Daddy needed $200 suits instead of $100 suits so they picked up and sold $200 worth of walnuts that year, around Dunnegan, and sold them at Stockton.
Dunnegan, Missouri - Wikipedia
She marched him off to Herr’s in Springfield and had his new suit tailored to him.
He wore a hundred dollar Hamilton, hundred dollar Florsheim shoes, carried a hundred dollar Parker Dufold, and if she’d had let him smoke a pipe it would have been a $25 Lee Five Star.
Once upon a time America made the best there was.
And a Lee was the best dress pipe.