I never count them, but I likely have a hundred or more Pipes by Lee.
The vast majority are Three Star grade, with only a few Two Stars and one Four Star and one Five Star.
I smoke cotton candy aromatics in them all day long in my office, but I spare the four star and five star, from hard use.
At home I’m a Marxman addict.
Lee did something to make the first smokes in his pipe taste sweet, whether it was an oil cure or maybe he boiled them in saccharine. It’s distinctive to the brand.
Lee also gave customers a lot tighter grain on a $25 pipe than he did on a $15 pipe which was tighter than a $10 pipe, but the $5 pipes seem to have had the same close grain as the $10, just not as fancy.
My $25 when new Lee Five Star colors just like my Marxman pipes.
It was a natural tan when I unboxed it and gave it the first smoke, and now look at it. Maybe I’ve smoked it a few dozen times.
Briar doesn’t have to barely cling to life on the Atlas mountain range in Algeria before 1954 to have tight grain structure approaching the stuff Robert Marx and Dunhill used.
But the tighter the growth rings the better a pipe will smoke no matter where the briar is sourced.
When selecting pipes, look for tighter grain not fancier grain, if you want a good smoker.
Tighter grain insulates better, it’s more fireproof, it cakes easier and the cake doesn’t get as hard to remove, although tighter grain seems to hardly ever have fancy figure and swirls that make it beautiful.
And another thing.
You get what you pay for, eighty years ago and still today.
Higher grade pipes use closer grained briar and smoke better.
The vast majority are Three Star grade, with only a few Two Stars and one Four Star and one Five Star.
I smoke cotton candy aromatics in them all day long in my office, but I spare the four star and five star, from hard use.
At home I’m a Marxman addict.
Lee did something to make the first smokes in his pipe taste sweet, whether it was an oil cure or maybe he boiled them in saccharine. It’s distinctive to the brand.
Lee also gave customers a lot tighter grain on a $25 pipe than he did on a $15 pipe which was tighter than a $10 pipe, but the $5 pipes seem to have had the same close grain as the $10, just not as fancy.
My $25 when new Lee Five Star colors just like my Marxman pipes.
It was a natural tan when I unboxed it and gave it the first smoke, and now look at it. Maybe I’ve smoked it a few dozen times.
Briar doesn’t have to barely cling to life on the Atlas mountain range in Algeria before 1954 to have tight grain structure approaching the stuff Robert Marx and Dunhill used.
But the tighter the growth rings the better a pipe will smoke no matter where the briar is sourced.
When selecting pipes, look for tighter grain not fancier grain, if you want a good smoker.
Tighter grain insulates better, it’s more fireproof, it cakes easier and the cake doesn’t get as hard to remove, although tighter grain seems to hardly ever have fancy figure and swirls that make it beautiful.
And another thing.
You get what you pay for, eighty years ago and still today.
Higher grade pipes use closer grained briar and smoke better.
