Stephen Grant sidelocks
As seen on my introduction page, this is a pair of Stephen Grant sidelocks, side leaver openers.When they came to me they had been resleeved , but no other work had been carried out. The lock plates were badly worn and rusted to the point where the engraving was nearly lost. They were cleaned up, specialist welded, then re engraved by a superb Kent engraver, who does all my work for me.
I then re polished all the parts, re blued the action pins, screws and furniture, and re assembled it. The woodwork caused a few problems, as they were too short for the current owner, and one had been re stocked but did not match the other gun.
They had to be lengthend in timber, reshaped,cast and dropped so they would both shoot the same. The top legs on the ejectors were all broken and had to be replaced. This was a major piece of restoration, but very satisfying to see them in all their glory.
Finished!
English sidelock
The next few pictures are of the woodwork of an English sidelock I recently restored.
Please notice the damage and worn
chequering.
Yet more damage, with a new piece of
wood set in ready to finish. Better view
of the worn chequering.
Damage to the forend. New piece set in.
Starting to strip the old dirt and finish.
Complete with damage gone and new
chequering
The completed stock!
Webley 12b
Recently, I have been working on a Webley 12b. It required re stocking, a new trigger guard and generally tidying up. After the trigger guard was fitted, it was then sent to be engraved by our master kent engraver.
The engraved trigger guard, prior to blacking
The trigger guard, blued and refitted. Notice how well it matches the original floor plate
The finished product
| UPDATE 18/11/08 |
Well, here we go. A” Marmite moment” for all you shooters who take the time to look at my website. You will either love this or hate it, please let me know.
A while back, I was asked to custom grade a stock for one of my customers, similar to my Beretta on the home page, but for a Krieghoff.
As you can see, he wanted finger grips.
And a palm swell added, as well as an extended grip for his large hands.
So, here it comes, the “Marmite moment”, the finished product.
Do you love it or hate it??
| UPDATE 02/12/08 |
This is an interesting project I have just completed. The gun, in the picture above, has far too much drop in the stock, some 35mm. The owner was finding it too flat, and when she mounted it correctly with her cheek on the comb, it kicked her in the face. The normal answer to this would be to bend the stock back up.
Unfortunately, when I took the stock off to head it up, I found, as you can see, the stock had been previously broken and repaired. This meant that the gun could not be bent, as the heat required would have softened the glue, causing major problems.
The answer, as you can see from above, was to cut the stock and insert a wedge of walnut to raise the back of the comb. The client also requested that I turn the full pistol grip into a semi, or “Prince of Wales”.
So! Here it is. What do you think? The drop, front to back, has been reduced to 10mm, about right for a sporter.
The pistol grip, with its new chequering.
This gun, once again, belongs to Tracy Meston, the head coach at Frock,
Stock and Barrel, www.frockstockand barrel.co.uk.
She is so pleased, she is willing to let anyone interested have a quick fondle of it. ( sorry folks, I
think she means the gun J ).
| UPDATE 30/04/09 |
Sometime ago Micky Winters bought an F1 Browning to me, old and showing signs of its age. The worst problem was the original gold amalgam laid in the engraving had over the years flaked away. The action also needed re-blueing which would remove what was left of it.
The only way to restore the action to its former glory, was to undercut the original engraving and lay in solid 18crt gold.
The finished product, struck off, polished and re-blacked.
| UPDATE 15/09/009 |
This is Guy, one of my latest customers, with his Rizzini/Greenwood custom grade.
Although the gun is quite plain, it does show that with a small investment, it can not only be made to look good, but also give a consistent and therefore effective gun mount i.e. he is breaking a lot more clays
.
The grip and forend have been changed to fit his hand perfectly, together with a leather faced Kickeeze pad fitted at the correct pitch have made a huge difference.
| UPDATE 13/12/009 |
Just thought you might like to see some pictures of a Browning which I have recently finished restoring.
A lot of the Gold around the border of the action had fallen out and been lost, all beautifully restored by our master Kent engraver.
The woodwork and chequering had also been neglected and damaged, restored by me. The barrels had turned gray with neglect and rust, now back to their former glory, thanks to Kent’s master barrel smith. I also serviced, re-built and lightly restored the action, but enough words, enjoy the pictures !!!!
