Parker D grade 12 ga-No Saftey

[Tom Flanigan]

I’ll indulge myself with one more comment. Obviously, the barrels are blued which is an incorrect finish for a Damascus gun. But what really gets to me is to see the engraving on the end of the barrels polished over. There is no need to do this.

L. C. Smith stamped their barrels with the grade and it hurts my eyes when I see this stamping polished over. A competent restorer would never polish over and diminish barrel markings. Some restorers polish over the engraving on the end of the barrels and then recut it. This is fine, but leaving this small area unpolished is the better option, in my opinion.

Another thing that gets to me is to see barrels refinished to deep black on fluid steel Parker guns. Too many iterations of rust, boil card. Original Parker bluing shows a distinctive blue color, not deep black.

Also, some restorers polish barrels to a higher sheen than original. I lightly polish no finer than 240 on the lower grade parkers and try to keep the striking marks intact whenever possible, especially on Trojans. The goal should always be to mimic original finishes.