That is a fine looking Lee. Great color and a nice black stem.
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That’s a nice one!
If I get another Lee it will be an earlier seven pointed star than my stamped five pointers, and I will be looking for a shape that has a little thicker walls than my three Lovats.
Lee Pots as well as Bullmoose pipes have nice thick bowls. My favorite Lee Pot went to @JOHN72 - it is/ was a dependable smoker.
Found another 1-star. This time a 3rd Gen Bulldog with the stamped Star all but eradicated.
If I weren’t lazy I’d reshoot this last one after cleaning that one edge…
If I weren’t lazy I’d reshoot this last one after cleaning that one edge…
Stamped star pipes of full inlaid five point star era quality sometimes are found, like that one.
It’s like one day, the order came, stop inlaying the stars and use this stamp instead.
One Stars are nearly unicorns. That is the highest quality one I’ve ever seen.
What I’d like to see is a stamped star Four or Five Star grade.
Were there any? Or did the high grades always get the inlaid stars?
That’s my fifth 1-star, all 2nd/3rd Gen. I’d love to find a 7-pt.
I’m convinced in 1946, at the birth, there were no One Star 7 points.
Were there later, $3.50 One Star 7 pts?
As to the 3rd Gen stamped star pipes.
I divide those into three levels.
Level one, is like your One Star. It is exactly the same as it would be if the gold star was an inlaid 5 pointer. Same quality, same finish, same joint. One day the order came to stamp the stars, otherwise same.
Level Two is still screw stem, but it’s a Kaywoodie/Briarlee mortise with exposed disc. The stem is lower quality. Some have the stars stamped on the shank. Maybe varnished.
Level Three is a push stem, with plasticy moulded stem. Drugstore pipe quality, all over.
But from 1946 to whenever they stopped they use Lee cured briar.
Here comes a 5 pointed star (I think) Two Star bent carved Bull Moose, or Bullcap, or Bullsomething.
View attachment 296679View attachment 296680View attachment 296681
Why a sound condition Lee is always a bargain. This one had the stinger stuck in the shank. My trusty little drill caught it, and I reversed the drill and it popped right out. All the lava cleaned up with steel wool. The chamber restored to brown. I used my Zippo to heat the tenon and reclocked it. It doesn’t even need any grapeseed oil.
I own maybe a half dozen Lee Bullmoose (or Bullcap, whatever bull or moose it is) pipes.
All of them were extremely high quality, made of high end briar, artistically carved, well finished, and if not in 1950 a bargain they surely are bargains today.
A note about the gold stars.
Brass turns green with age.
I’ve seen about a hundred Lee pipes, I’ve owned, and never one with green stars.
Gold turns black with age. So do Lee stars.
Years ago, and maybe still today, just below 10 carat “fine gold” there was an alloy metal of about 9 carat gold sold as “jewel’s gold”.
I think Lee used deeply inlaid jeweler’s gold for the 7 and 5 point era pipes.
They will all shine right back to new using metal polish and elbow grease.
The later “stamped stars” were not deeply inlaid. They seem to have been a thin gold foil that probably wore off in a year or two even then, with no hope of permanent restoration.
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That one cleaned up nicely! However, now I feel like I'm being haunted by wierd bent stems!
What can be bent, can be unbent!That one cleaned up nicely! However, now I feel like I'm being haunted by wierd bent stems!
There just had to be a lot of skilled hand work on the first and second generation Lees, and the bend on this one is just perfect to clench.
The bottom quarter of the bowl is not yet broken in. There’s that honey sweet Lee break in taste with the smell of burnt briar and the bottom gets hot and sweats.
Lee pipes, do profit from a break in all the way to the bottom of the bowl.
They just don’t taste terrible doing it.
The bottom quarter of the bowl is not yet broken in. There’s that honey sweet Lee break in taste with the smell of burnt briar and the bottom gets hot and sweats.
Lee pipes, do profit from a break in all the way to the bottom of the bowl.
They just don’t taste terrible doing it.