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My Five Star is a Bull something, but it’s not magnificent, merely way nice.
My only early Star Grained marked pipe is a mere Two Star, and magnificent.
Sometimes, I wonder if Lee stamped and filled the appropriate number of stars to match an order.
I wondered the same. That five star Bullmoose is grained nicely. And so is the two star. The question is, when did the stars go into the stem. Before or after the order.
Here is a story for you.
A long, long time ago, I was the pool manager for a Christian camp on Lake Killarney in Ironton, Missouri. You know the camp I am sure... Camp Penuel. The pastor who ran it was a dreamer named Harry Douma. Anyway, a local who played guitar would sit with me by the pool as we played guitar together, told me the following story about his uncle.
His uncle was the book keeper for a logging firm. One day, the owner called him in and accused him of writing a check out to an employee for the employee's wages. The check was for $25,000 and had been signed off by the uncle. Clearly something was going on. Anyway, Larry - my friend's uncle - said to the owner, "What color is the the signature on that check?" The owner replied that it was red. Larry then responded, "In all of the years you've known me, have I EVER used anything other than a green pen?"
The owner thanked him for the information and went on about his investigation. Clearly Larry didn't write the check.
The moral of the story is that make yourself known by the habits you keep and people will know you for who you are.
I don't think the man who sent out the Lee pipes had very good habits.