doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Forty five year case hunt over

Thats a really beautiful job there Damascus. Well done!

Wow, mate!
It's great that the leather could be saved...I'm not surprised it soaked up so much of your conditioner.
Sometimes the old leather has just had it, & no matter how much you soak it, it has no fiber left in it.
I like the black, kinda unusually nice.
There's only one thing missing mate.....where's the bloody bar in wood Purdey????
Don't tease us,
Lovely job
franc

You brought back a case which most would consider to be a hopeless cause, dead if you want to call it by its real name. But it was just mostly dead. I know that even a labor of love like this takes hours and hours to complete. Your efforts are not wasted on such a great case.

Looks great! Can you explain the neatsfoot oil - steam bath process? Thanks.

Hi all

I think I had better start answering your questions.

Short round yes It is the same gun that James Mason is holding in the Film �The Shooting Party� and if you don�t mind me saying again it is probably the only film that truly captured what a British Edwardian country house shoot was like in reality the shoot scenes available to watch on u tube.
OH. It could be a drop in fit but the cases original resident had 32 inch barrels and a dolls head extension so some wood needed at each end of the barrel compartment, also the action securing strap is missing as is the stop in the action compartment at the stock end so I will have to fit some timber there. Also though it is not clear from the photograph the tops of the oak liners are so split that they are falling off so need repairing. But as the case is it could be used if I did the repairs to the oak liners.
Cpa. The steam and oil treatment was given to the leather because it was that dry it had the consistency of wood. Because it is Aniline leather there is no surface sealing coat and it is naturally porous after tanning so if it is not regularly maintained it dry�s out so you have to put a certain amount of water back to hydrate the leather and oil to lubricate the leather fibres or it will start to crack especially along the hinge line. So the steam and Neetsfoot oil treatment was used in times now long past to soften all sorts of leather articles if they became too hard.
The treatment is simple you need a large box cardboard will work for a one off job and a wallpaper steamer (the gadget you for removing wallpaper from a wall) because it provides steam for quite a long time between re-fills. Now I am not sure that Neetsfoot oil is available in the States but it is worth the effort to locate a source because it is the finest treatment for softening leather there is but the smell can be a little off putting. You apply a very thin coat of oil over the leather article and place it in a steam filled box the heat and the steam will encourage the oil to soak deeply in to the leather fibres and the steam gently hydrates the leather at the same time.
Frank will this picture be ok.

Do you mean this oil ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neatsfoot_oil

Yes Igorrock that is the oil I am referring to.

If Sir Winston C. was still extant, he'd have a fit with your syntax here, es[ecially for a Brit- Yes--Igor, that is the exact oil to which I referred previous- Tut Tut and Tisk-Tisk- no excuse for improper grammar in a civilized world, ey Wot??

Point of spelling here, my good man- Will not match your Purdey and case- etc- a Purdy with case would be a high grade paint brush- the Purdy brush Co. makes the best paint brushes, they are the "Steinways" of the painter's trade- house painters- Don't know if old Andy Wyeth used them for his NE sea-scapes though. Now a Purdey is indeed, either a Steinway or Bosendorfer of the double gun realm-- truly a treasure indeed- and deserving of a fine case as well-

Hi Fox To be truly correct it is not the EXACT oil at all I was referring to but the oil that is available in today�s market place as described in Wikipedia which is extracted from animal Lard. The oil I actually used was some thirty years or so old, intended for human use and of BP quality (British Pharmacopoeia) so made from the real things lower leg animal bones so I feel that my reply was correct.
But you where not privy to all the information I had when forming my reply I felt sure that it would be to much information and therefore complicate the reply more than necessary.
And as a true scouser my feelings on the subject are if I had have written the reply in colloquial Liverpudlian it would be no contest on syntax or the English language.



In the picture I am the young man second from the right looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights the photograph was taken at that famous Liverpool cellar club on one of the nights the Beatles played there. A bit of the subject but I do like people to know I was THERE!!!