doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com British case colors

Tim, that is a great looking old gun. I am always amazed when someone comes across a closet queen like that one. It provides a good guide to modern restorers as to just what they are trying to accomplish...Geo

Indeed a great looking old Clabrough. My Clabrough is marked J P Clabrough & Bros & is from the 1890s @ SN 4230. It has 28" Damascus barrels, � choke in both barrels. It has 2 5/8" chambers & a Doll's Head rather than a Cross Bolt. Hardly any finish left, either case colors or bluing, but with low pressure 1 oz loads it is one fine quail, woodcock etc gun.

I have seen some of the history of these guns but forget now just when Johnson became a part of the company. As I recall he was the US importer in California.

�Johnstone�, since we are on typos today.

Best,
Ted

In Lawrence P. Shelton's book,� J.P. Clabrough Birmingham Gunmaker� it states that, "Douglas Vaughan Johnstone owned the Clabrough Company in England from 1892 to 1918."

Interestingly, big changes came in 1914 for Clabrough & Johnstone. Specifically, in 1911 the gun-making firms of Isaac Hollis & Son and Bentley and Playfair had amalgamated and following in 1914 Clabrough & Johnstone also amalgamated into the same group, all of which were headed up by Douglas V. Johnstone. From 1914 on-wards, they shared the same premises and workmen in Birmingham. So my Clabrough & Johnstone shotgun would have likely been built in 1925 by the Hollis, Bentley and Playfair firm, even though it's branded Clabrough & Johnstone.

The book also states that Douglas V. Johnstone did have a son named Philip Douglas Johnstone who immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1925, being listed as a gun-maker; he apparently worked for Griffin and Howe in New York City, and died in 1989.

Edit: See the attached article J.P. Clabrough, and the California connection.

J.P. Clabrough Article

That Westley .410 ( to me, anyway) has the most beautiful combination of engraving and case colors that I have ever seen. Subtle soft colors blending with the engraving. Some of the stuff I have seen recently are way too bright and gaudy. Rather like the fellow in the article describes as someone using glossy paint.

Thanks George.

My good friend the late Tony Treadwell goes into his experiments with case colouring in his excellant book An English Gunmaking Heritage.

Tony Treadwell's chapter on re case hardening of shotgun frames is the best description of the process that i have ever read...

he is certainly missed here...

There is a video on AA Brown's site here https://losgi.com/aabrown-sons-79774-5?f...Gdl33M_LZEPXX9k

Video is towards the bottom of the page

JohnfromUK, thank you for the link to that video. I am amazed that, the more I read and watch about charcoal pack casehardening, the less consistent it seems to be from one shop to another.

From Oscar Gaddy's techniques to this at AA Brown I notice that there is a difference in the granulation size of the charcoal. I notice that there is no effort to make a nearly airtight lid-to-crucible seal at AA Brown. There is little effort to prevent oxygen from entering the "pot", as Brown calls it. Indeed, the lid is removed long before the crucible/pot is even removed from the oven. Oscar made every effort to keep the lid on the container until submersion in the water, wanting it to happen mere inches away from the surface. There is no blocking, or bracing of parts being casehardened, at Brown. Gaddy was adamant that it helped to prevent warpage, yet Brown had no warpage at all, in the video.

Having had all the necessary tools to do casehardening of parts and actions, I have been gathering as much information as possible for at least 10 years. It seems that the more I learn the less I know.

SRH