HOW "PARKER" ARE THESE CASE COLORS
 

I recently purchased a totally restored Parker VH 20 GA.
I think a great restoration job, but, I'm not sure how close to original looking are the case colors.
Opinions Please!
No holds barred.
Bob Jurewicz

they look great to me but im no expert on parker colors but i do like the case colors on this gun...charlie

Please show the underside and the left side.

That picture looks pretty close. Is that Turnbull's work?





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In my opinion, though overall correct looking, the sides have a little more straw than would be considered ideal. The right type of colors, just too much of some and not enough of others.
The front of the frame looks Great.

[ATTACH]Attachment 51936[/ATTACH]

I think they look great. Parker colors varied and though these are on the light or straw side they are not incorrect.

It looks better than my old beaters.

Look good, and will look even better after some use!

Nice gun! Are the screws in the white?

I think the underside looks great!




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Very nice. I like them alot.

Thanks everyone for your responses! I guess I can rest easy with this purchase.
Jut when I was talking about downsizing. You just can't kick the habit.
Bob Jurewicz

Bob, do you know who did the colors?

No idea who did work on this gun.
Bob J

Looks like torch and oil to me. Judging by the small circles and the lack of edge drawback.

Brad

Brad,
I have added a few more pics. Please look at these at it relates to torch case coloring.
Thank you!
Bob Jurewicz

No torch colors there...
To me, it looks like a turnbull colored gun and the results were just a little more straw than normal. And the gun came oit of western NY, right Bob?

I could be wrong- the only Turnbull colored gun I have is from his very early days at it

but didn't he start stamping a mark on guns he redid many years ago?

I heard that about very early guns, but i am sure it is not being done currently or anytime recently. No frame colored for me by dougs shop has a mark on it. At least not one that is noticable by me, or any others for that matter.

As a side thought on that topic, i do not personally believe in putting your mark on a gun that you are restoring. Since the purpose of a restoration is to tey to emulate factory work in any way you can. And your mark would not be included in that endeavor.

Pictures of these fancy guns motivates me to get some spray paint and add some case colors to my best Parker. A blue can and a yellow can should do it with practice.

Any of us that have a rack full of beaters/shooters with little if any color left would die for colors like that. I really like them, perfectly correct or not. After a bit of wear they'll look plenty 'correct'.

Doug did two guns for me about 18 years ago, when his shop foreman was named Parker. The first, a GHE, has no stamp but on the second, about 6 months later, an LC Smith Trap Grade, he was offering a 10% discount in exchange for putting a Dt stamp on the watertable. I bit, and have no regrets. He did a complete restoration, wood, metal, engraving, TIG welding the lug to bring it on face, for $2150, net of the $250 discount. I suspect the same job today would go for three times that much. I'll post a picture of the stamp when I get a chance.

The areas I circled in black do not look like the result of a heat treatment, they do no coincide with section changes and are too sharply defined. I am not sure if this is part of what Brad was alluding to.
There are similar, nondescript spots on the opposite side, whose edges are equally sharp, and unrelated to section thickness changes.
Nonetheless, the gun is very pleasant to look at,

I wouldn't be concerned on who did it I know the birds won't care. It's a nice gun just enjoy it, congratulations.

Edgar,
I always enjoy your informative posts. Please keep them coming! But you and some others are overthinking the colors on this gun. The colors are definitely, positively and without a doubt all genuine bone charcoal case colors. Sure, they came out a little heavy on the yellows for a Parker, but they are genuine colors none the less. The variations that have been analyzed on this thread are most likely areas where a protective coat of lacquer or varnish has worn off, making it look like a variation in surface thickness. In fact, if you look at the right breach ball, you can clearly see a splotch of remaining lacquer or varnish. A disassembly and acetone soak would remove all of those fragments and not harm the colors at all.
Happy new year everyone!

www.classiccasecolorsllc.com

Looks darn good to me Bob.

Looks darn good to me Bob.
Tom

I agree with Edgar - something just doesn't look right in the area he highlighted. At the same time, the gun does look good. I don't get all that picky, especially when it isn't mine.

I wish my Del Grego refinished VH 410 looked that good.

If you get a gun colored by Delgrego now, it will look much closer. Turnbull is coloring guns for them now. And Doug told me that himself.

It's a smallbore Parker, what's not to like. I'd be quite happy with that in my safe Bob. Nice gun.

For those that want to compare the subject colors to actual torch colors... I found this nice example...

Attachment 52170

Attachment 52171

Almost as awful as early Delgrego.

I finally got some pictures of the DT stamp from Turnbull I referred to on my LC Smith Trap Grade. Photo attached. The stamp is just to the right of the TE and under the 2 in the serial no. Three more photos of the case colors and chased engraving he did after polishing. The colors are much gaudier than those he did on my GHE 16 ga., sort of like Jayne Mansfield compared to Marilyn Monroe. FWIW.

The colors look correct, whoever did them knew what they were doing, but colors seek their own pattern, and after the first time the metal changes. It is difficult to get them right!

Any of those posted in this thread look way better than rust.