Ruminations on Lee Refreshment

[Briar Lee]

Today my fist Lee of 2023 arrived (I’ve been into Algerian briar in January) and it dawned on me, that while refreshing a Lee is but ought to me, to a fair haired youth might a pitfall be. I refresh a lot of Lees. It won’t hurt to share my methods with folks who aren’t obsessed with accumulating too many old pipes to count.

So here are the as unboxed photos of a twenty dollar Three Star Medium Slim Carved Billiard, 5 pointed gold inlaid star era eBay purchase.

The stinger is busted off, otherwise this old Lee looks good under the grime. Tonight I’ll clean it up, and remove that old stinger, and make this old twenty dollar Lee worth at least twenty five dollars.

 

[Briar Lee]

I can refresh a pipe in any order I please, and all I do is refresh one, I don’t have restoration skills or patience.

But on this one I took my trusty dress pocket knife and used it as a scraper, to scrape every bit of cake, and I mean all of it, from the chamber. Somebody had heavily caked this Lee, and it took about five minutes of careful scraping to get it down to bare, stained dark, briar.

 

[Coreios]

Very nice, gonna be a pretty pipe cleaned up.

 

[Briar Lee]

I’ve found that when heavily caked, it might take two or three times of cleaning one up, smoking it, then getting out my pocket knife and working at getting every atom of the old cake out. The old cake is not your friend. It harbors musty tasting, old, petrified oils and gunk you don’t want in a pipe that on the day it was made seventy some years ago was the best factory pipe in the world at the price grade. This 5 pointed inlaid star era pipe was likely $15 in the early fifties, an increase of $5 over previous 7 pointed star era pipes.

So when you get tired of scraping, get a bottle of Everclear (vodka or any 80 proof booze works, 190 proof Everclear is my preference) and a half a paper towel.

I got three bowl cleanings from this one towel half.





That should be clean enough for now. I’ve wiped the entire pipe off with Everclear, first on a clean towel, and after bowl cleaning on a dirty towel.

Now it’s better than it was.
But not nearly as good as it will be.

 

[Briar Lee]

Now I like to slick em’ up and clean ‘em’ up.

To slick one up, I use 4/0 steel wool, Everclear and elbow grease. Easy does it, watch rubbing too much over the letters.



I tried pulling the busted stinger, and couldn’t get a good grip with my pliers. So I took one drill bit, drilled it a bit, then a second drill bit a little bigger, and the busted stinger broke and came out. Be careful, these aren’t worth a new stem, at least not when another pipe is only twenty bucks.

Then I clean the stem and shank with Everclear, and take all the used pipe cleaners and scrub the bowl again.



Wipe it all off with Everclear, and it’s almost done.

 

[Briar Lee]

Harry Hosterman showed me how to polish pipes with olive oil when I was so little his wife, daughter or my mother would have nearly killed him for exposing me to such a manly vice at my tender years.

But if Wilda Mae or his daughter Nona Fern had grapeseed oil in the cupboard Harry would have borrowed their grapeseed oil, instead. It is thinner, evaporates quicker, darkens the briar less, although olive oil does about the same thing.

This is only temporary. It evaporates and can be removed with Everclear.

But look at my twenty dollar pipe glow, in the company of a late thirties Kaywoodie Flame Grain, also oiled with grapeseed oil from the same towel.




Basically I’m done with this Lee.

I smoked a bowl of Velvet, and it was delicious.

But I’ve scraped a little more dust of carbon from the bowl, and cleaned it again, and with the tip of my pocket knife I can scrape the nooks and crannies clean of lava on the rim.

But I have a nice Lee now, good enough to show off in my office or smoke anywhere, and be proud of it.



I was born in 1958. If Lee still inlaid real jeweler’s gold 5 pointed stars in 1958 this pipe could have been bought by the owner of a new 1958 Cadillac.

Buying old Lees means you get a Cadillac grade pipe at a five and dime store price.

Which reminds me of an old country song, but most of life does.

I’ve yet to file a bankruptcy for a man who overspent on Lee pipes, you know?

 

[Papamique]

I do respect your passion for these pipes and the time spent doing these posts/threads. I’m happy for you that you got a pipe that excites you and satisfies you so much. Well done.

 

[Briar Lee]

I do respect your passion for these pipes and the time spent doing these posts/threads. I’m happy for you that you got a pipe that excites you and satisfies you so much. Well done.

I now have two of the same limited edition. While they look identical, on close examination each pipe is hand carved, they are different lengths, different carving patterns, obviously hand made to a pattern.

Lee made classy stuff, seriously.