This is pretty much a car wreck situation with that dood.
Ya know it's happening, ya don't wanta look. But....
Cripes.
Note the 'airtight' inletting on the stock shield, tang, etc. NOT at the pro level from any pro of my acquaintance, or even an occasional 'gun woodist' like me.
The case-color is as usual. The accessory felony fraud-level flackery praising it's qualities has been on going for some time.
What absolutely gives me the shudders is that fore end. No understanding of 'game gun' dynamics. That two by four is suitable to a trap gun with a pucker-tight pistol grip, f'r cryin' out loud.
It's easy to get exercised and rail against the 'Ed and Company' complicit atrocities. But I doubt that much of the gun-buying public has a clue as to the nonfactual puffery, the near [if not actual and actionable] frauds which the sales author and the torch mechanic are perp'ing, and to the hideous incongruities which they foist upon an appreciative and gullible public.
I would guess that they even have a loyal, if ignorant, following. Without e-sources like this BBS, how many of us thirty+ years ago would have even known or recognized what were the faults of those 'restorations'? True, if you had a hereditary armory, or were a graded 'name' collector, or otherwise had come to know fine guns, 'Ed' would have been noticeable.
That was back when fine condition cased English doubles and SxS's were selling for a tenth, or even far less, than they are now. And don't even reflect about the prices on ordinary field grade stuff. It's that very growth of interest and money that makes 'Ed'ing financially possible.
I remember in the late 60's [yes, I can remember select things from that era] standing at the small shop sales-counter of a fellow reputed to be a 'gun guru' and looking at a twin to the ordinary "Ed" job. It was a field LC, with what I know now was a torch job, gappy stock, coarse checkering and odd wood dimensions. It was wonderful and I wanted it. Thanks to a photographic memory, it's easy to pull it up in the 'forehead screen file' for a fact check.
It was only an accident that I fell in with disreputable SxS outlaws, who savor'd and appreciated the workmanship, design and shootability of those obsolete and cheap non-repeaters. Along with the appearance of 'Net boards like this, the circumstances furthered my awareness of the "Ed" factor. And, BTW, "Eds" still exist at all different levels of the trade. "New and untouched collection of foxes, right out of a dead executive's closet estate. never seem before...etc & bleecch"
"Stone the great unwashed" I say. "Stone them for their transgressions. To the gibbon..er..gibbet with the sods."
My current fave, regarding any number of fitting subjects: "If I had a rocket launcher..." Robert Cray
Last edited by JohnM; 03/15/07 09:14 AM.
