Fine Gunmaking

Doug Turnbull's father, Terry, founded Creek Side Gun Shop in 1958 in Bloomfield, New York, three years before Doug was born. Doug's earliest memories of the shop include taking naps on the office couch when he was about 3. At one time Creek Side was the largest retail gunshop in upstate New York, and it included a gunsmithing business in the back. Doug's first shop task was blowing dust off of stocks as the stockmaker checkered them. At about age 10 he was tapping the gunsmith-drilled holes for scope mounts, and in eighth grade he stocked a bolt-action rifle from a blank as a shop project in school. Throughout his childhood, Turnbull worked in the shop nights and weekends and hunted woodchucks in fertile pastures in his off time.

Doug Turnbull literally grew up in the gunshop.

After high school and a couple of years of community college (earning an associate degree in criminal justice), Turnbull returned to gunsmithing at Creek Side in 1983, in the back shop affectionately called the "pig pen." The focus for Turnbull and the two other gunsmiths became refining firearms-restoration processes. Terry Turnbull had been doing color case hardening with the "charcoal pack" method for several years as a one-at-a-time procedure, mostly renewing Winchester lever guns. By the late 1980s Doug set out to advance the process to reliable and repeatable production methods, and by 1993 Turnbull Restoration was fully independent. (Creek Side Gun Shop closed in 2000.)
At that time dealers and collectors largely were interested in Colts and Winchesters, but the ever-present league of Parker shotgun enthusiasts got Turnbull interested in developing the different hues of traditional Parker case colors.

Interest in double shotguns was growing, and reference books were either first published or reprinted showing color photos of what many American classics-L.C. Smiths, Parkers, Lefevers, Ithacas and the like-supposedly looked like when new. These two contemporaneous trends grew together, leading to the current state of enthusiasm for shooting, hunting with, collecting and restoring vintage doubles, and the growth and involvement of Turnbull Restoration.

By the early '90s Turnbull had about perfected the case-hardening process and developed two different approaches to the types of coloring. Parker colors are distinct from the case colors of any other gunmaker. They have been described as "electric" and "oil on water," and they appear almost iridescent and fluid, tending toward blues and reds running together with less of the gray background seen in other case colors. The second approach is toward what you might see on an L.C. Smith or a freshly finished Winchester rifle. These have what might be termed "patches" of color, running more to deep blues, with yellows, greens and browns and abrupt splotches of color on gray-base tones. English guns generally have similar colors but may appear a bit subdued by comparison.

Polishing greatly affects any type of gunmetal finish. Understanding the degree of polishing as well as the methods and techniques used is paramount to performing high-quality restorations. Different gunmakers used different techniques, and different grades of guns from the same maker often exhibit a higher degree of polishing as the grades increase in quality. It's not a stretch to imagine a Parker A-1 Special having a higher degree of polishing than a Trojan. Quality restoration mimics the original work with the method, degree and even direction of the polishing.

Turnbull studied "high condition" original guns, emulating and striving to duplicate the "as-new" look. During the developmental years, he perfected rust- and nitre-bluing techniques and started learning what he could about the archaic charcoal bluing used so frequently for double-gun furniture and small parts. (For more information on finishes, see "Metal Finishes for Fine Guns, Parts I & II," May/June & July/August '06.)

Several years ago he produced a video titled "Introduction to Metal Preparation" that presents the best material on the subject. Although not strictly a how-to tape, there is enough information and a clear-enough presentation to get the hobbyist started preparing his own gun for metal refinishing. Tools, methods and degrees of polishing along with good tips for specific guns and specific metal finishes are presented. This would be my first recommendation for those wishing to do their own prep work. The DVD version sells for about $35.

These days the bulk of Turnbull's shop work and business involves metal finishing. His shop offers the greatest variety of finishes in the US and has the greatest experience applying them. About 15 percent of the metal coloring-case colors, various bluing, French gray and so on-is done to pre-polished gun parts largely for other professionals in the trade, such as myself. Turnbull has done virtually all of the case coloring and charcoal bluing for my custom guns and rifles for the past 15-plus years. A recent example (shown on p. 42) was a custom 20-gauge Garbi sidelock with a case-hardened action and lockplates with the color removed to present what Turnbull calls a "pewter gray" finish. The toplever, guard, forend iron and small parts were charcoal blued by Turnbull, with the barrels rust blued and screws nitre blued in my shop. I hand polished all of the parts to 600 grit prior to sending them for coloring.

The remaining 85 percent of Turnbull's metal-finishing work includes polishing and preparing for metal coloring. Jobs vary from just case coloring actions, to complete metal refinishing, to complete wood and metal restorations, to upgrading guns (e.g., transforming a Parker VH grade to a top-of-the-line A-1 Special.)

Turnbull's great experience with metal finishing also comes from production work. For the 100th anniversary of the Marlin Model 1894 rifle, he color hardened 2,500 rifle frames for the American manufacturer. When I spoke with him, he had a batch of 40 single-action revolvers, a group of 25 1911 autos, and another 15 revolvers in the works for various manufacturers. For color case hardening alone, the shop might do as many as 200 guns in a week or as few as 20. Because this work is so visible and visual, there is virtually no margin for error.

On average Turnbull's shop works on or restores something in the neighborhood of 1,500 firearms per year. In 1998 the shop was moved to a 4,000 square-foot building, and in 2001 the building underwent a 3,000-square-foot expansion. This tremendous volume of work is accomplished by 12 people, nine of whom are fulltime gunsmiths, including a fulltime in-house engraver. All have been trained in the shop to a certain extent, but Turnbull is quick to admit that the addition of some key experienced employees has added to the shop's overall expertise and that many of the employees are more adept at particular operations than he is.

In my own experience the shop has achieved a consistency of quality throughout its services and a degree of professionalism to be admired by anyone in the trade. (As I was writing this, my Garbi sidelock parts arrived wonderfully finished, well packaged, and with barely two weeks turnaround time from Montana to New York and back.)

In the next installment I will take a closer look at specific double-gun services offered by Turnbull Restoration and delve a bit deeper into charcoal bluing.

Author's Note: For more information on coloring and restoration services and products (e.g., DVDs), contact Doug Turnbull Restoration, Inc., 585-657-6338; www.turnbullrestoration.com.

Autographed copies of Steven Dodd Hughes' new book, Double Guns and Custom Gunsmithing, are available for $46 postpaid from the author, PO Box 545, Livingtson, MT 59047.