doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Superb color!

Hi Franc,
don't feel singled out with Ed,I did the same thing,offeing to bring cash and my C&R and got the same response,"mail order only".
I am about 1/2 hour from him.
Dave K

I'm neutral and don't give a .... about Ed either way, but I think some of you ole boys are too hard on him. Will I ever buy anything from him. No, I want pristine "Brickhoff" factory original and am willing to pay extra if prn.

Lefty, this is not a case of an "amateur doing CCH," this is a professional hack ruining the original heat treatment of a gun by over heating selected spots with a gas torch to get something that resembles color case hardening. There is a distinct possibility these guns would be dangerous to shoot with modern high pressure loads after his treatment. Many of us here have seen clear examples where his guns were torched without even removing the action from the buttstock, slightly scorching adjacent wood areas. This leads one to believe the receivers are not being stripped before his ruinous torch work, likely seriously harming internal springs and other heat treated parts. The guy knows full well what he is doing. This is not in any way to be considered amateur CCH, it's simple deceit. There are a number of good firms who do proper color case work, not to be confused with a hack and his gas torch ruining fine old guns.

Maybe this would be a good addition to Sherman Bell's "Finding Out for Myself" series. Buy a "refreshed" sxs by Ed1 with all the pretty colors on the receiver and see how the frame holds together under proof loads. I'd do it, but I'd have a hard time explaining to the wife why I spent the children's lunch money on a gun just to blow it up.

As my attorney told me recently when I consulted him about a particular matter: "Unfortunately, there's no law against being stupid."

Perhaps the best that anyone can do under the circumstances is to continue to post such examples of hacked, and possibly dangerously destructive work, to edify and inform the the gun-buying public.

The power of info [or mis-info] on the 'Net is not always rapid in it's accumulation. But, accumulate it does. Just check the level of DG info that is common knowledge now, to browsers of this forum.

Eventually, knowledge of such malpractice and ignorance [willful or blind] does make it's way around to those willing to inform themselves. For those who buy such pigs in lipstick and fishnet hose, they may never know the difference -- or may eventually become better educated and NOT have such fond memeories of having been taken.

Then again, a gun that has been mistreated by a "restoration" to the point of dangerous physical condition is a legal timebomb, just ticking away for said 'mecanik'.

Case in point: how many folks here would now shop the famous supplier of "a collection of near mint A.H.Fox guns, just found in an Executive's closet, stored since WW2" without a GREAT deal of caution and a severe examination of the goods?

Word gets around.

To the untrained eye, indeed. I, for one, am not embarrassed to admit that I have absolutely no training and very little experience in identifying real CC from a torch job. Usually I look at these threads and say to myself "Huh, I guess it's a good thing I didn't get that gun, or one like it".

With this gun, though, even my untrained eye can see EXACTLY where the torch was applied to the metal. It's almost as if Professional Gunsmith Ed Landers has lost interest in even TRYING to make his torch jobs look "realistic". Or maybe they're just going through his smithy so fast he doesn't have the time to heat the entire receiver, just selected parts of it!

When even I can tell it's a torch job, it must be really, really bad...

P.T. Barnum was right-amazing isn't it?

Maybe Ed1 owns the torch and Ed Landers is doing some other aspect of the "restoration". Perhaps Ed Landers doesn't even know this is happeneing to guns he's working on????

I remember one of the Members here speaking up in defense of Ed Landers (not Ed1). Maybe he can contact him and fill him in on what is going on. At least we would know if ED L. and Ed1 are on the same page.