Show Off Your Lee Pipes Here!

[Briar Lee]

There weren’t any CNC milling machines in 1946. Each pipe shape required the duplicating machine be reset or more likely, Lee had specific fraising machines dedicated to each shape.

Here are a Medium Billiard and a Medium Slim Billiard. Very close, but there are differences in length and bowl height and one has a chamfered bowl the other flat. Maybe each run was a “special edition”.

Lee made fine pipes, however he made them.


There was a lot of hand finishing done. On these the stems interchange, but they surely don’t align unless on the correct pipe.

 

[Parsimonious Piper]

There weren’t any CNC milling machines in 1946. Each pipe shape required the duplicating machine be reset or more likely, Lee had specific fraising machines dedicated to each shape.

Here are a Medium Billiard and a Medium Slim Billiard. Very close, but there are differences in length and bowl height and one has a chamfered bowl the other flat. Maybe each run was a “special edition”.

Lee made fine pipes, however he made them.

Love that birdseye.

 

[Parsimonious Piper]

A late run poker with a push stem. Stummel has a few nicks, but I’m far too lazy to sand and restain when the pipe smokes just fine clean. The grain on the other side is nothing special, but I love this birdseye.

 

[Briar Lee]

At least for carved billiards, Lee used a lot of hand work in production.

At first glance these two Medium Slim Carved Billiards are identical.

Look closer and they are different. The darker one is taller, slimmer, and a half inch longer. The carving was all done freehand, by different carvers. The one that carved and finished the darker, longer pipe was more skilled.

Stems on wrong pipes:

 

[Briar Lee]

Many thanks to any of my friends who stopped bidding at $30 on this pair of carved Custombuilt styled 5 pointed gold inlaid star Lee chubbies I won for $31 each. I think the Two Star is prettier than the Three Star, but I’ll report back when they arrive.

Three Star Carved Chubby Bent Rhodesian



Two Star Carved Chubby Pot




They can’t talk, but if they could I see a lady buying him a ten dollar Lee for his birthday and another fifteen dollar one for Christmas, about 1952.

At least he wasn’t in Korea, you know?

 

[Briar Lee]

An extremely high condition Lee Three Star 7 point star walnut stained medium squat Bulldog. $40 on eBay, delivered today.

It had been smoked once or maybe twice, halfway down.

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This one has really nice grain, above and beyond typical three star, but it’s dark stained, so they could use briar with more hidden fills.

Cleanup was with ever clear and 4/0 steel wool, plus grapeseed oil.

These were the best factory pipes on earth in 1946.

And, it’s a mere $10 Three Star.

For comparison here’s a 5 pointed star era Lee Four Star medium squat bulldog.

This is my only Four Star.

By the 5 pointed star era, it’s my belief there was a $5 One Star, and the Two Star grade was doubled to $10, the Three Star went to $15, this Four Star would have been $20 (to match the price of Kaywoodie Connoisseur), and the Five Star stayed $25 (matching the Kaywoodie Centennial).

There’s so little Lee advertising it’s hard to guess when prices advanced.

Middle run 5 pointed gold inlaid star pipes, are by experience not only slightly better but are more scarce, than early or late run Lees.



No, I don’t use 4/0 steel wool or grapeseed oil on my nearly new condition Four Star or NOS Five Star.

Because I don’t need to.

 

[Parsimonious Piper]

For comparison here’s a 5 pointed star era Lee Four Star medium squat bulldog.

This is my only Four Star.

I’m still looking for a 4-star. Nice.

 

[Briar Lee]

I’m still looking for a 4-star. Nice.

Was a Four Star better than a Three Star?

A little. Not much.

But that’s because a Three Star was such a high grade pipe to compare with.

 

[Briar Lee]

A late run poker with a push stem. Stummel has a few nicks, but I’m far too lazy to sand and restain when the pipe smokes just fine clean. The grain on the other side is nothing special, but I love this birdseye.
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Here is a middle run 5 point Lee Two Star Poker.

This pipe is just an extraordinarily fine smoker, above and beyond any expectations.

It’s been smoked by me, from being new old stock, maybe a dozen times. Look how quickly fine briar colors.

 

[Briar Lee]

Excluding my Four and Five Star grade Lees, except for the scarce larger ones, the average cost of the over one hundred Lees I own is about $30, delivered.

I have so many, look at these four I dug out of the console and door pockets of my car this morning.

I don’t think the photos show, but the two 5 points are just a wee bit fancier and more polished than the 7 points.

 

[telescopes]

Interesting. The pot seems to have white lettering. I haven't seen that before.

 

[didimauw]

Interesting. The pot seems to have white lettering. I haven't seen that before.

Its probably from residue that was left over in the door pocket he crammed them in....

 

[Briar Lee]

Interesting. The pot seems to have white lettering. I haven't seen that before.

That is dust, I think.

Every Lee I own was stamped and nothing used to color stampings.

Lees have a tough, hard fully polished finish. There’s no varnish, but while polishing out the briar Lee was an expert on staining and filling the pores, with something.

Lee made high grade stuff. They glow but aren’t glossy.

 

[telescopes]

Its probably from residue that was left over in the door pocket he crammed them in....

That is dust, I think.

Hmmm, white dust. Just what is our good lawyer "trafficking" in? I mean 'trucking'.

Missouri is one of our capitals for certain types of substances. Just who is he representing?

 

[didimauw]

That is dust, I think.

Every Lee I own was stamped and nothing used to color stampings.

Lees have a tough, hard fully polished finish. There’s no varnish, but while polishing out the briar Lee was an expert on staining and filling the pores, with something.

Lee made high grade stuff. They glow but aren’t glossy.

So out of all of your 100 some Lee pipes, Which ONE Is your favorite?

 

[Briar Lee]

So out of all of your 100 some Lee pipes, Which ONE Is your favorite?

They are like children and I love them all just the same.

But this one is a dynamite smoker, in the same league as “Old Speedy”.

5 point Lee Two Star Medium Poker




This one was almost new, half of a Christmas 1953 smoke or something on that order, when I got it.

All my Lees except two old worn out ones are excellent smokers.

This Poker is out of this world.

 

[Briar Lee]

On the range of sizes of Lees.

I have a small bent nose warmer somewhere.

Those had to have been novelties.

And I have a large four panel Lee, also outside the usual range.

Most Lee Star grades were a medium (for 1946) sized pipe. Maybe three out of four of my Lees have a bowl and shank the size of this medium stamped star Thee Star Bulldog.



But Harry Hosterman, who smoked small Dr Grabows, if his family had known about Lees they no doubt would have given him small Lees for Christmas and his birthday, like this 5 point Two Star Small Pear. (I have a few of these in Briarlee and Pipe Maker and Star Grades, small pear must have been popular).



And at the top range, I have several of these Large Chunky Billiards and other similar size larger Lees.

 

[Sobrbiker]

The three star stamped Lovat in posts 70, 79, 80 has found a new forever home. I gave it some more TLC, I need some grape seed oil, and got the bit shiny black and smooth to put my own teeth marks on. It’s had a couple smokes today.
It’d be cool to find a correct removable stinger just to try and have for completeness, but it’s a great smoker. Thrilled I got the Lovat first, perfect size and weight.

Hopefully I can get a couple more, I know the pokers that are on this thread will haunt me…

Thanks again Briar Lee, I’ll be keeping my eye out if you decide to let anymore go, and may have to spar with you on eBay

 

[Briar Lee]

The three star stamped Lovat in posts 70, 79, 80 has found a new forever home. I gave it some more TLC, I need some grape seed oil, and got the bit shiny black and smooth to put my own teeth marks on. It’s had a couple smokes today.
It’d be cool to find a correct removable stinger just to try and have for completeness, but it’s a great smoker. Thrilled I got the Lovat first, perfect size and weight.

Hopefully I can get a couple more, I know the pokers that are on this thread will haunt me…

Thanks again Briar Lee, I’ll be keeping my eye out if you decide to let anymore go, and may have to spar with you on eBayView attachment 210289View attachment 210290View attachment 210291

I’m glad you are enjoying your Lovat.

I think everybody that’s part of the cult of Pipes by Lee has divided the series into the first 7 pointed inlaid gold star pipes, then the later 5 point inlaid gold star pipes, and then stamped star pipes.

But I think the stamped stars can be further subdivided as follows:

1. Middle run screw stem stamped stars. These pipes, and the three I sold are examples, would be indistinguishable from middle run 5 point gold inlaid star pipes except for the stamped stars using fake gold.

2. Late run screw stem stamped stars. Later on, there might be a few tiny fills in a three star, more fills in a two star, and maybe there’s a factory stain combination varnish that is easily removed Briar grade is still top notch.

3. I’ve not seen many, but a few late run stamped star Lees used a Briarlee type aluminum mortise, a screw stem, and a Briarlee stem with the stars stamped on the shank. These for whatever reason seem to return to superlative briar quality, with no fills. Maybe these were Frankenlees made up at the end, from parts.

4. Late run stamped star push stems. There’s the stain varnish, fills, molded stems, but still a top notch grade of briar. I’d say these were last, after the Briarlee type screw stems.

But that last push stem Lee made the day they whizzed on the fire in the stove and turned off the lights was a top quality, high dollar pipe that used the curing process Lee used for all pipes, and there are no clunker Lee Star Grades, and they are all righteous.

Some are more righteous, among the righteous.

 

[Sobrbiker]

I’ve got my second Lee inbound, three star stamped bent billiard.
Made an offer on a “buy it now”, hopefully it’s a good one.
No idea where it fits in the hierarchy of stamped five pointers as laid out above by @Briar Lee but I didn’t pay a lot. Doesn’t look like a lot of fills, and in pretty nice shape.