doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Question on my W.W. Greener F35

Good evening all. I was cleaning up my office this evening and I came across a letter I received last year from Graham Greener regarding my W. W. Greener F35 Serial 56905.
According to Mr. Greener, work on the shotgun started on 9-29-1908 and was completed on 01-31-1912. It was made for stock and the original owner was not recorded, so it was probably sold through their London establishment. The craftsmen who worked on the gun were:
Jointer - Lee
Locks - Tomkins
Stocker - Sayer
Finisher - Lowe
Shooting - Smith
Smoother - Luckett
Polisher - Jones
Engravers - Maddox (name, address, etc. on locks and top rib / Bate (fine scrolls)
Blacker - Starkey
Freer - Luckett

I don't know what a "freer" does. Although, I don't know who the original owner of the gun was, it is neat to know the names of the people who applied their trade and skills on the gun. It somehow connects it more with its 110-year history and it I think it adds to the "personality" of the gun.

Has any of the above craftsmen worked on any of your guns?
BillK

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=247300.0

From above

Apparently the occupational term is an Action Freer, Gun Lock Freer, Lock Freer, who adjusted a guns lock actions after they had been fitted by an action fitter, filing them, where necessary with a very fine smoothing file.
As a filer was the general term for a man who dressed metal articles that had been cast, forged, pressed, stamped, wrought etc.,in order to remove rough edges, then they would probably have been employed in the manufacture of locks, but whether they would be specifically called a 'lock filer' is open to question .

Mike

For a real eye opener on how much these craftsmen made in 1913, Doug Tate's book "Birmingham Gunmakers" includes a list of weekly wages. Workers of average skills made from 20-45 shillings. Highly skilled workers made a maximum of 60 shillings. (20 shillings = 1 pound.) Only about 5% of workers were highly skilled.

Actions were normally tightened up as far as possible before submitting to Proof, and case hardening may result in slight distortion to the frame.

The job of the freer, I think more often referred to as the “finisher” these days , was inter alia to make sure the customer would be able to open and shut his new gun without a gunsmith’s industrial strength thumbs.

Interesting remark-- about 10 years ago, in his shop in Grand Rapids, the now late Brad Bachelder showed me a fine looking British 12 bore he had in the sale rack- Sorry, I forget the name off hand, but it would take an Arnold Schwartener to close it- Brad referred to it as a "wrist breaker"--and if memory serves, in Jack O'Connor's "The Shotgun Book" he relates a story about a prospective Limey client remarking that the gun he was examining with a view to buying "sure was hard to close".. It was a self-opening Purdey, and the clerk said: "My dear Mr. Jones, our clients do Not close their guns!"" RWTF

That would almost certainly be a Charles Lancaster back action side lock (with leg of mutton shaped lock plates) known as the “Wristbreaker”.