Blog by Steve Laug

This LHS pot was another gift from a friend in exchange for restemming his pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Certified Purex in a convex arc and underneath is a concave arc stamped Imported Briar. In the middle the stamping is very faint but using a magnifying lens the remnants of a diamond with the letters LHS are barely visible. The finish was very dirty and the rim was blackened but not burned. The bottom of the bowl near the front was covered with dents and pin pricks like the pipe had been tapped or dropped on concrete. There was very little cake in the bowl. The stem had a screw mount tenon with an aluminum receptor on the end of the shank. The stem itself had an aluminum end on it with a push in stinger apparatus. The stem had deep tooth marks on the top and the bottom sides and was oxidized. On the left side of the stem was an aluminum diamond that was inserted in the stem.

I looked up LHS Certified Purex pipes on Google and found the following information. The first comes from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-lhs.html#certifiedpurex . Phil has a page on the LHS pipes. The L&H Stern Inc. was established by Ludwig Stern (1877-1942) in 1911. His brother Hugo (1872-?) acted as vice-president & secretary. The firm moved to 56 Pearl St. Brooklyn in 1920. It closed down in the 1960s. LHS was one of the main pipe suppliers for US soldiers during WWII. LHS had several seconds lines, two of which are the London Royal and the Stanhope. Phil included the two photos below. The first is of the diamond insert on the stem. The one I am refurbishing has the same diamond. The second is of the stamping on the pipe. The top photo which is a picture of the stamping reads Certified Purex over Imported Briar with the LHS in a Diamond inside the two arcs. This stamping matches the pipe I worked on.
Pipedia also had information on the pipes from which I summarize some additions that were not included above. L & H Stern (LHS) of Brooklyn, New York. The company’s famous logo is in a diamond. These pipes are high quality production pipes. A popular and moderately priced pipe made from 1896 through the 1960’s by the L&H Stern Company of Brooklyn, New York. Many of their later Sterncrest pipes featured silver bands and some were made with 14kt. gold bands as well. The “Diamond” series appears to be their high-end line. They had a different logo which was 3 diamonds in a row, larger in the middle. They also had Allbriar models (stem and bowl both made of briar) in the Diamond line, and these tended to have a screw type fitment with stinger, like Kaywoodie or Dr. Grabows.

With this information I took the Purex pot to my work table. I took off the stem and dropped the bowl into an alcohol bath to soak while I worked on the stem. It sat in the bath for about an hour while I addressed the issues on the stem.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification around the button and up the stem for about ½ inch. I also wanted to clean up around the tooth dents to see what I would have to do to fix them. In the next two photos below the dents in the stem are clearly visible on the top and the underside of the stem. Removing the calcification made the dents very clear.

After examining them with a magnifying glass I could see that they were dents. I was able to heat them and lift them to some degree and then sanded what remained after heating. The next three photos show the removal of the dents and remaining marks with the sandpaper.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit “pink” sanding sponge that is visible in the photos below. This removed the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. In these photos the dents are no longer visible. The sanding also removed the majority of the oxidation on the stem.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish before I worked on the pitting and marks on the bottom of the bowl. I steamed the dents and then filled the remaining marks with superglue to smooth them out. I sanded the superglue with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the slight bubble on the super glue and also followed up that with a medium grit sanding sponge. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I stained the bowl with black aniline stain and flamed it to set it deep in the grain. I repeated the staining and flaming to make sure I got a smooth and even coverage on the undercoat of stain. The black understain does a great job in hiding the small fills that were in the bottom of the bowl.

I wiped down the stain with acetone to remove the topcoat and to highlight the dark grain pattern that remained. The dents on the bottom of the bowl are not visible in the fourth photo below. The grain shows through nicely. I sanded the bowl with 1800-2400 micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches that were still visible in the finish.

I then stained the pipe with a oxblood stain for a finish coat. I applied the stain, flamed it and reapplied it and flamed it repeatedly until I had the coverage I wanted on the pipe. The next three photos show the rich overstain. The repairs to the pits on the bottom of the bowl are no longer visible.

The stem had been slightly overturned so I needed to heat the tenon and turn it clockwise on the shank until it lined up again. I removed the stinger and then heated the tenon over a heat gun to loosen the glue in the stem. Once it was heated I screwed it into the shank of the pipe until it was aligned again.

I put the stinger back in place and wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

Once I finished sanding the stem I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite. I polished the aluminum on the shank and the stem with the higher grits of micromesh and then with silver polish. I then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and then with multiple coats of carnauba wax to polish and protect it. The finished pipe is pictured below.