doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Farquharson Restoration

I just changed it before reading your post Steven. BTW I love the B&W photos in your custom firearms book.

Just a quick update. I got very lucky this past week in that Dave Norin had a few case hardening jobs to do so he used that opportunity to anneal my Farquharson action. Fred Bowen has made some form fitting jaws to hold the action while he works on it. In a week or 2 I hope Fred will email me some photos of practice plates for his engraving design. He will be using these 2 illustrations I sent him for inspiration.

Fred Bowen has begun serious work on my Farquharson. This is the annealed action as received from Dave Norin.


This is the beginning of the polishing process.


These are Fred's practice plates. The first is a border.

Great looking work. The border is wonderfull.

Thank you for appreciating Fred's work. When I wrote the article about his work on my Fraser he claimed engraving was just a hobby. Now that he is doing it full time he is not attempting to remain anonymous. As a person with no talent, I could never understood how folks like Fred could be so modest. BTW your own work is top notch.

That engraving is, in my mind triple A Grade work, it's magnificent. Can't Mr.Fred Bowan be persuaded to do a video (perhaps for Youtube) demonstrating his methods?

I believe our Mr.Ken Hurst has some competition here. (No offence Ken), their styles are different but both show consumate skill. Now, if only I could persuade one of them to do this work at Victorian pay rates I may be able to afford it.

Harry

Harry,
I was overjoyed just to get Fred to take some digital photos. He keeps claiming to have no computer skills at all.

BTW Bailey, you may be interested to know that my Fraser came with a 7X57R barrel in addition to a 20ga barrel, so that beautiful Farquharson you made is entirely appropriate.

Nothin' like a 7x57R.

I ordered another bath of barrels from Shilen last week. One is a .311 bore for a .303 Brit. Always wanted one...

It will be interesting to compare how the Shilen barrel does versus the .303 McGowen barrel I have coming. Back in the early 60's I had Ed make me a .218 Bee on a low wall when he was with John Dewey in NY State. It was extremely accurate, but only with loads at the higher end of the pressure spectrum....very strange.

The new barrel from McGowen arrived today. It is perfectly contoured to match the original,as well as beautifully rifled and polished. I hope the photos demonstrate that the rear sight island and the forend will require no fitting!