Happy to add to the story Claudio.
I used to maintain a correspondence with an old time member here. Robert Chambers. I found him to be extremely knowledgeable about certain areas of the vintage gun world but polarizing and not the right temperament to thrive in a forum like this. I happened to be conversing with him in the summer of 2020 and he mentioned he would like to sell a few blanks he had. His eyesight was failing and the time for him to utilize some nice blanks was over.
Sight unseen I bought one of them. I should have bought all of them. He told me that he had had the blank for at least 25 years and that the person he acquired it from had shown him a receipt from Purdey’s for the blank dated in the mid 1960s. It’s all hearsay at this point but that’s the story I got.
The blank arrived and I thought it was lovely but understated. I had recently picked up some other, more “in your face” blanks and so this one was just sitting waiting for the right project.
Claudio called me one day as he knew I had acquired a few blanks. Told me about the project and asked if any of them might make sense. I told him about this blank and he was interested. Now it’s always both entertaining and informative to spend time in Claudio’s workshop so it didn’t take much to get me in my car and making the drive over to his shop.
I didn’t see it again until the gun was finished and my jaw dropped. I had seriously underestimated this blank. It has depth to it like I have never seen before. I feel,like I can see into it.
And it doesn’t hurt that I did Claudio “a solid”. Pretty sure that will work out for me one day. 🤣
