Show Off Your Lee Pipes Here!
- Thread starter didimauw
- Start date
Two Lee Three Stars are on the way, one Standard Bulldog and a curious saddle bit Canadian with stars on the shank. Price was $35 each, delivered.
Both appear in high condition, and five pointed star inlaid era.
Both appear in high condition, and five pointed star inlaid era.
I have a very similar Lumberman: push stem, stars stamped on the shank instead of the stem. Yours makes only the second I’ve seen with that stamping.
Still some pretty briar in these later models.]
Still some pretty briar in these later models.]
My pipes came today and frankly, were a bit disappointing.
Instead of being inlaid five pointed star pipes, they are merely stamped.
Boo who who waaaa!
Poor me.
I’m too spoiled with too many Lees.
The Canadian is a push stem, and except for stamped stars the quality is typical middle run top of the curve Lee production.
I wonder, if Stuart Allen bought Lee at the meridian height of inlaid five pointed star quality?
If only, the Lees could talk.
Instead of being inlaid five pointed star pipes, they are merely stamped.
Boo who who waaaa!
Poor me.
I’m too spoiled with too many Lees.
The Canadian is a push stem, and except for stamped stars the quality is typical middle run top of the curve Lee production.
I wonder, if Stuart Allen bought Lee at the meridian height of inlaid five pointed star quality?
If only, the Lees could talk.
The previous owner of these two Lees was extraordinarily fortunate to enjoy two of the finest pipes I own in my huge stash of pipes. Both were spotlessly clean inside, but moderately caked. I used a sharp pocket knife to clean the chambers of both down to bare briar, and both smoke as cool, sweet, and mild as the best of my pipes can smoke.
Except for the stamped stars, these two Lees equal the very best Pre War Kaywoodies. To try and duplicate this level of briar quality today would cost a whole lot of money.
Just because the stars are not inlaid is no reason to pass on a Star Grade Lee.
Except for the stamped stars, these two Lees equal the very best Pre War Kaywoodies. To try and duplicate this level of briar quality today would cost a whole lot of money.
Just because the stars are not inlaid is no reason to pass on a Star Grade Lee.
Playing around examining these pipes, the Canadian, especially, simply had to have been hand made, by a master artisan. He didn’t use the screw stem because of the six inch flattened oval shank meant a long bore hole, and the push stem he hand filed is noticeably not concentric unless pushed in one way.
Damn, Lee was at the top of their game during this period.
The briar used on both pipes is just impossibly close grained, with spectacular flame and cross grain, and not even the smallest fill is evident.
And these only rated three stars. There were two grades above these.
Each Lee should be examined on an individual basis.
None are bad, but a few are truly among the best pipes ever made, period.
Damn, Lee was at the top of their game during this period.
The briar used on both pipes is just impossibly close grained, with spectacular flame and cross grain, and not even the smallest fill is evident.
And these only rated three stars. There were two grades above these.
Each Lee should be examined on an individual basis.
None are bad, but a few are truly among the best pipes ever made, period.
I've been looking at Lees, since I genuinely want to add a nice example to my collection of vintage American pipes, but this thread brings up a philosophical conundrum...
Does @Briar Lee extol the virtures of these pipes so much so that he is unable to keep from buying them all, thereby negating all his efforts to have everyone else buy one to try?
I actually have a bid on one right now...but who knows if I'll make it to the finish line! I think it is a 3-star 7-point stamped star stem.
Does @Briar Lee extol the virtures of these pipes so much so that he is unable to keep from buying them all, thereby negating all his efforts to have everyone else buy one to try?
I actually have a bid on one right now...but who knows if I'll make it to the finish line! I think it is a 3-star 7-point stamped star stem.
Where do you find Lee pipes. Your enthusiasm for them has sparked my interest. I’ve looked on a few estate pipe sites but haven’t come across one yet. Even on eBay.
There is a way you can program eBay to send email alerts when Lee pipes come up for sale.
I’ve never sold a Lee. I can’t imagine ever wanting to.
If I pay more than $30 I’m buying what I think is a middle period inlaid five pointed star example in high condition.
Be careful to look at the stems. I cannot imagine it’s economical to replace a stem on a true Lee Star Grade with a screw stem.
I think what us Lee pipe lovers are seeing is a form of survivor bias, where the best and most expensive pipes were given by wives and sweethearts to men who didn’t smoke a pipe. This explains why Three Star Lees ($10) vastly outnumber the Two Stars ($5) that almost all got smoked up and tossed.
These last two Lees I bought were smoked, and smoked a lot.
But some pipe lover like us smoked them. He didn’t hurt either one a bit.
I’ve never sold a Lee. I can’t imagine ever wanting to.
If I pay more than $30 I’m buying what I think is a middle period inlaid five pointed star example in high condition.
Be careful to look at the stems. I cannot imagine it’s economical to replace a stem on a true Lee Star Grade with a screw stem.
I think what us Lee pipe lovers are seeing is a form of survivor bias, where the best and most expensive pipes were given by wives and sweethearts to men who didn’t smoke a pipe. This explains why Three Star Lees ($10) vastly outnumber the Two Stars ($5) that almost all got smoked up and tossed.
These last two Lees I bought were smoked, and smoked a lot.
But some pipe lover like us smoked them. He didn’t hurt either one a bit.
Look at that briar.
If you sent that masterpiece to a custom maker today and said make me one to match it,,,
Could it even be done?
And what would it cost if it could?
As in how much?
The above pipe might have cost $15 in 1955 or so, whenever Lee quit inlaying jeweler’s gold into the stars, and there was a price increase to $5 per star.
An inflation calculator renders $167. But the Lee was a factory production pipe, you could either order or walk into a pipe shop and buy. My Lumberman is the same pattern.
The briar on Parsimonious Piper’s example looks even better than mine, and mine is gorgeous.
So let’s give our modern day artisan the benefit of $25 in 1955, which Lee would have gladly filled an order for the same Lumberman in a Five Star. That’s $278 in modern money.
Could $300 buy such a bauble?
I’d say it would be well worth that, if new from a master artisan.
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Without a doubt. Check artisan prices for some of the lesser known pipe makers. My brother got one of better quality than what you are showing for around $150
That’s good to know.
Lee’s little gadget screw stem system was a duralumin mortise, tenon, and removable stinger that would have only cost pennies in serial factory production. Today nobody would tool up to make it, the tooling cost would be prohibitive, not counting the learning curve to fit the gadget.
On some special shapes like the Lumberman it probably couldn’t be fitted.
His jeweler’s gold inlaid stars could be duplicated, but then and today stamped stars with fake gold would be lots cheaper.
The only Lee Star Grades I’ve seen with spectacular briar are in the middle run.
Then and today finding a flawless piece long enough to make a Lumberman with a six inch shank isn’t a Dr Grabow factory mill run item.
Not to mention hiring a man skilled enough to hand make the pipe and stem.
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Spectacular is subjective, but I’d apply it to the use of grain on this middle run ’dog. It’s aligned so that straight grain and birdseye alternate in adjacent ”fields” as you walk around the pipe. Not too shabby for a factory pipe.
So the elimination of the gadget was only to cut costs.
In college economics I was taught every company tries to build moats to make their product exclusive.
Lee’s biggest moat was those gold stars.
Maybe the five pointed stars were to cut costs, but I don’t think so. Until I’m shown otherwise I think it was an upgrade when the price structure was revised upward to five dollars a star.
The second moat was that in invisible, hidden screw stem with detachable stinger. Who really cared that much, about that? Push stems were cheaper.
And when they were brand new in the shop a fake gold star shone as brightly as an inlaid star.
I wonder if they quit oil curing briar, at the end? Dunhill did. A few smokes and it’s no longer a concern.
As much as they cost, and as scarce as advertising copy is, the wonder is Lee sold enough pipes we can hoard so many all these years later.
Wow.
That is my definition of spectacular.
And this is an ordinary mill run middle grade pipe, that if it cost $15 in 1955 would retail in a shop today for $167.
No way, no how, can a pipe that nice for sale in a shop today only be priced at $175.
They’d not sell enough to keep them on the rack.
Which probably explains the death of the Lee brand.
