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

From about 1972-73 I lived in Long Beach, California, attended Cal State Long Beach and worked for Thompson’s Sporting Goods, which was a gunshop. Although I wasn’t impressed with Bernie Thompson, I managed to meet some very interesting folks there, it turned out that some of the customers, as well as local workmen were former Weatherby’s employees and were the workmen who made the custom weatherby guns in the 50’s and early 60’s; some of the men I still remember were; Engilbert “Ole” Olafsson, Ralph Davis, John McCormick, Michael Chang, a big Irishman named McIntyre, and several whose names I’ve forgotten, what I've come to realize is that these men never put their names on their work and have now been mostly forgotten. I got to know Engilbert and Mike Chang quite well and was amazed by their skill and the high quality of their work. Engilbert was the finest wood worker I’ve ever met; his stock work was absolutely flawless, many times I visited his shop in downtown Long Beach where he was doing the final finishing on shotguns from Pachmayr Gun Works, some of these guns were absolutely breathtaking! A-grade Parker’s, Holland & Holland’s, etc. Ole was from Iceland, he was very tall with a strong Icelandic accent, he told me that as a boy he was apprenticed to a furniture maker in Denmark, where he learned techniques of fine woodwork, then in the early 1950’s he came to America and went to work for Roy Weatherby, where he was taught stockmaking. More later...

I, for one, look forward to hearing more. Thanks

And me. Whitey

What I remember most about Ole’s shop was his workbench which was a heavy wooden bench with a large pile of the most wonderful chisels at one end, each one of his chisels had a beautiful light colored hardwood handle with the initials EO carved in it, the blade of each chisel was ground and then polished with a buffing wheel so that it shined brightly and was as sharp as a straight razor. Ole was well over six feet tall with very large hands, but was as skilled as a surgeon; I remember watching him inlet a stock for a sidelock double, and after checking the fit, using one of his chisels to remove a perfect paper thin shaving of walnut, when he was done the stock had an absolutely perfect wood to metal fit. He once told me that a customer had brought him a European shotgun and wanted the stock to be inletted so that it fit perfectly on the inside surfaces, not just on the outside, when the customer came to pick up his gun, Ole had to take the locks out to show him that it was perfectly fitted up on the inside surfaces too. Ole was also a master at matching and fitting pieces into damaged or broken stocks, some of the repairs were so well done that you couldn’t see the line where the piece was spliced in, another thing that amazed me was that he was so skilled with his chisels that when he got done shaping a stock, it was smooth and perfect with only a minimum of sanding necessary before the finish was applied. Ole’s favorite remark was “Ya, ve vill get to it right avay.”

Very interesting. Since I live about 1/3 mile from Long Beach, I'll bounce these names around some of the geez... er, old gents, at Bullseye Sporting Goods next Saturday and see if anybody remembers anything about them. I'm not a native of this part of CA and have never heard of these craftsmen, nor even of Thompsons (have heard rumors of Weatherby, tho).

Did any of them make sporters from actions for their own customers? It always bugs me to see a very adequate custom gun with no gunsmith attribution. Somebody needs to give the guy his due....sometimes that's just not possible, tho.

Interesting stuff, keep it coming.

When I first met Michael Chang he lived in Monterey Park, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, Mike was born in mainland China and as a young man had fought with the forces of Chiang Kai-Shek against the Japanese and later against the Chinese Communists. Mike had to flee to Formosa with the other Chinese Nationalists and in the early 1950’s was allowed to come to America, he told me at that time, that if he tried to return to mainland China, he would be arrested and imprisoned, however years later after Mao died, all was forgiven and he was allowed to return home to visit his friends and relatives. Mike was a master wood carver and specialized in checkering, but could do all sorts of gunsmithing work including metal engraving. Like Engilbert Olafsson, Mike Chang had gone to work at Roy Weatherby’s shop where he was taught the gunsmithing trade. Mike showed me several pictures of him sitting at his checkering cradle at Weatherby’s in South Gate, but explained that none of Weatherby’s catalogs or advertisements ever showed the workmen’s faces, just their hands. Like Engilbert, Mike was a fine craftsman and capable of producing the finest quality of work. One time when I was visiting Mike, he was working on an old European bolt action rifle that he had restocked for a customer with carved a hawk on the right hand side of the stock. Normally, the stock carving I’ve seen is not well executed or very tasteful, however this was beautifully done and the hawk almost looked alive, it was a wonderful job and Mike told me that he had breathed life into it. I later saw the rifle on display at the Pomona gun show, I’m sure it’s still out there somewhere.

Mike,

As I recall, Ole's shop was on 3rd street in downtown Long Beach, between Long Beach Blvd. and Atlantic, near Acres and Acres of Books, Thompson's was on Wardlow Rd. about two blocks north of Atlantic, and to answer your question, yes, all of these men did a tremendous amount of work after they left Weatherby, I know that Ole stocked up lots of nice rifles, including single shots, a great many shotguns and few pistols, and he installed hundreds of recoil pads.

Bob

From what I was told, Roy Weatherby was an insurance salesman who decided to start his own company to market a unique “brand” of high quality hunting rifles. Weatherby’s rifles would have their own unique design and would be made in their own special calibers; their slogan was “Tomorrow’s rifles today.” Ralph T. Davis was a master machinist who owned “Modern Gun Shop” or “MGS” that manufactured a line of high quality jacketed bullets. Originally, Ralph Davis was Roy Weatherby’s partner and was in charge of the manufacturing of the rifles; of course Weatherby was in charge of marketing and advertising. Its fun for me to write about these men because I keep remembering more things that I had forgotten, another man who worked for Roy Weatherby was Walter Abe (pronounced Ah-bay) and although I didn’t know Mr. Abe, I’ve seen his work and it appeared to be excellent, he later became known for converting 52 Winchester target models into sporters. At that time, the late 1940’s and early 50’s, hunting was fashionable and Weatherby’s catalogs were filled with pictures of Hollywood celebrities like Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Andy Devine, and many others, holding their custom Weatherby rifle and sometimes a bear or elk they had just killed with it.

Thanks for the information. I was just poking around on gunbroker and stumbled across this.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=199002766

The seller is from CA and mentions the stock is by "Ole". Does this look to you like the work of the same Ole? I usually do not care for carving, but this looks like a very attractive job.

Thanks again for the information.
John