I have sent work to Malcolm Clark a couple of times. The case coloring he does is not bad. Unfortunately, he took a job that was too big for his britches with my last item shipped to him.
I sent him a Boss for new hammers to be fitted and for it to be color case hardened. Also for one new main spring to be crafted. He told me lines of BS about how it was coming together, how the engraver had redone the things I'd requested, etc.
In the end, he was lying to me as to the status (steps completed) on the gun. He then decided to proceed with CCH work without the hammers fitted. He then sent it back to me with a bill to pay him for the work he did. The problem with that is that you repair a gun first, then you CCH the whole thing. Now I have to send it out to another person to finish the work and black and CCH the remaining parts.
Net result, I stiffed him on the bill because he lied to me and you don't get paid for doing half a job and then force me to pay someone else to redo that same job again (CCH).
All would have been no big deal, all forgiven had he not lied to me about where he was at in the process and what was done. (e.g. Frank Conroy had NOT done any rechasing of engraving, yet he told me it was back from him prior to Malcolm CCH the gun)
Beware of flaky gunsmiths that take on more than that which they are capable of completing.
Use him for CCH only in my opinion. (akin to the feedback when you ask Mike Orlen for work that doesn't involve barrels)
