Honest restoration is a noble art. Fakery is not. The difference is straightforward. If I mend a broken gun or put it back to what was most likely its original shape, I am providing appropriate service. If I embellish a piece beyond what it originally was, for any reason, I am behaving unethically.
Common examples of forgery and unethical behavior within the gun world include, but are not limited to, adding patch boxes, adding carving, and marrying a signed barrel to a new piece of wood which has been distressed and aged to look old. Local auction houses in my region abound with such specimens. So do tourist trap antique shops, especially around national shrines.
Another general note. Many people are proud of their original flints. While there are some great guns out there in original flint condition, lots of guns that people pride as originals are actually reconversions from percussion back to flint. It was part of the history of the rifles that many in the 1850 circa were returned to a gunsmith or blacksmith to be converted to the new percussion system. In the 20th and 21st centuries, many owners chose to have their collectibles reconverted to flint.
A good reconversion often enhances value, but a butcher job does not. The process requires welding shut the threaded hole in the barrel and eventually drilling a new touch hole and disguising the job. This is the easy part. The hard part is to rebuild the lock, reapplying all the flint appendages, refitting it, and making it all come out so that it does not resemble a VW grille on a Cadillac. Some gunsmiths get lucky and find a lock that falls right into the mortise. This rarely happens. Incidentally, my teachers can often spot a decent reconversion from across the room and tell you who cast the frizzen and when. Many are that obvious to a trained eye.
That being said, lets look at a few of the more common types of restoration that you can expect to encounter as well as talk about some bad examples that I've seen in my travels. This is intended as just a start. Pitch in, experts.
Area 1--Replaced fore end wood and stretched barrels. It is most common to find an attic condition rifle with about 12-18 inches of fore end wood missing. This is usually replaced. Seek a professional, and I don't mean a cabinet maker (no offense to them). You want to use a piece of similar wood with similar grain and curl. You need to go back to fresh clean wood and make a clean cut. A diagonal butt joint is often used because it increases the glue-surface area and is stronger than a 90-degree butt joint. The joint can be obscured by any artist and sometimes an inlay or a flow of incised carving can help obscure it. In short, if you can see the joint from the outside, or feel it, it is not good work. Also, expect to find slivers of wood before and to the rear of the lock where there was burnout. Lots of good guns have a little work in this area. None of this stuff, if done correctly, kills a gun. Quality work enhances a piece.
Just remember, you need to look for butt joints around the wrist and underneath the lock area, too. You may be holding one of those pieces of bunko artistry that is an original, raised carved buttstock with everything else, including new aged or old refitted barrel, married to it. If that doesn't bother you, OK. It would bother me.
Stretched barrels are a bit more controversial. Back in the days when guns were being converted to percussion, the owners also often had the gunsmith cut off about a foot of barrel, making the rifle easier to tote around. Some recent owners wanted their longrifle to be long again. Adding barrel material and making it look real is not an easy job, and clearly, any of this work is merely for show. The guns are not stretched to be used. Only a complete fool would try it. Not all additions are applied to the muzzle end. Often, the added material is put somewhere in the middle, to intentional deceive people who look down the muzzle to examine the rifling. I always carry a little marble or a .30 cal ball and roll it down the barrel. If you hear two thumps as it goes down, put the gun down and walk away. Skinny bore lights also help. I personally view stretched barrels as a negative factor.
Area II--Carving. Note: Most Kentucky rifles were not artistically carved. The few that were were done in either incised or raised manner, and frequently with a blend of the two. Incised work is cut directly into the surface of the wood. Bas relief (raised) carving is achieved by laying out your design and then relieving the background wood so as to make the pattern stand out.
When people apply new raised carving to an old piece, they need to remove a slight bit of background wood around the design. Often there will be about 1/64 of an inch of butt plate brass protruding above the wood on the side where the dirty work has been done. Sly dealers will give you that Cheshire Cat grin, anticipate your question, and tell you that bad fit is due to "wood shrinkage." What you need to ask that man (or woman) is why the material only shrank on that one side and not the bottom (should be more) or other side. You may wonder to yourself why the counterfeiter didn't take the time to clean up that fit, but that opens another can of worms, so I've been told.
Another thing I detest. That's epoxy or polymer fillers used internally or externally for restoration work. The best men in the business, for instance, Allen Martin and Mark Wheland, wouldn't allow a can of plastic near their shops. I wouldn't recommend anyone who does, any more than I would recommend a builder who uses wood screws where original guns have a nut and bolt. I've seen people pay money for work like this, too. The joke is that some of the people who do things like this are well known builders.
If I can help one new collector avoid some of the mistakes I, and others, have made, then this is worth the time. You are ready to sink money into guns, when, and only when, you trust your own experience enough to take the plunge. Then, after you feel certain, invite someone whom you respect to offer a second opinion. It's amazing what you can miss and what another pair of trained eyes can point out.
Happy collecting and exercise caution. A deadly notion is "I gotta have it now!" Hey, there's no shortage of this stuff out there. It pays to be selective. Remember, today's junk is tomorrow's junk. Junk is junk. Be selective. Condition is king, and if you don't believe me now, you'll become a believer when you go to sell your collection. JWHeckert
