Pipemaker Eric E. Christie has been hand making pipes for over three decades, learning his trade from one of America’s great pipemakers in the 1980’s, Richard C. Johnson. Mr. Johnson opened his own tobacco store, Johnson’s Pipe Shop, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he made his own line of handmade pipes, Johnson Pipes. The stems on both these pipes have large gaping hole near the button end, exposing the stem’s airway.
While in a Swiss prisoner of war camp (1870) Henry meets up with his cousins (the Chapius family) and the plan to open a pipe factory if and when they are released. On their return to France, the Comoy & Chapius families open their factory is opened. With the popularity of there pipes in London, Henry takes machinery and skilled craftsmen to the UK. The Comoy factory was supplied with pre cut bowls and other raw material from St Claude. If there are some moist tobacco bites, remove it immediately with the pipe cleaner to avoid a bad smell. Gently tap your pipe on the palm of your hand or on a pipe ashtray (with a cork knocker) to remove the ashes and tobacco.
Chacom is a brand of Cuty-Fort Entreprises (Jeantet, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix, chacom tobacco pipes Ropp …). I wrote Charles Lemon of Dad’s Pipes who is the go to guy for all things Brigham and asked him about the pipe. He said it was a shape he did not have and did not have on his shape chart. I thought about it overnight and sent it off to him on Monday morning. I look forward to his blog on this pipe as it is a really Danish looking Brigham.
The stem was very damaged with a bite through on the top side and much chewing around the edges of the stem. The bowl is very dirty with little room in the bowl – thick cake and lots of overflow on to the back side of the rim.I reamed the bowl with reamers. I cleaned the mortise, and the airway in the shank and stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. You can see what the bowl looks like now in the next two photos.
From the pictures below, it is amply evident that I did not achieve the exact consistency I desired, but no issues, it still worked!!! Since the beginning of my journey into the beautiful and challenging world of pipe refurnishing, I am being faced with problem relating to glue. Maybe the hot temperate climate prevalent here is causing issues or the quality of glue itself is an issue. However notwithstanding the issues of glue, I was able to prepare a mixture of CA superglue and activated charcoal and applied it to the surface.
Following the death of Henri in 1924, the company (London & St Claude factories) is taken over by Paul & Adrian Comoy with help from Emile & Louis Chapius. By 1928 the London Chacom factory had begun completely making pipes in London and the supplies from St Claude were no longer required. Rather than closing the original factory the company was renamed Comoy (a combination of both names) in 1928. Shapes, ranges and grading remained the same between the two factories and Chacom was only sold in France, Switzerland and Belguim. I came across this pipe at an antique mall in London, Ontario.