Anyone recognize this case coloring?

[Dean Romig]

So did Remington Arms in Ilion farm their case hardening work to this shop?
I ask this because several long time Parker people have told me that Babe would take these parts to Remington for this work after Babe had left Remington's employ.





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[Kevin McCormack]

[QUOTE=Dean Romig;233873]So did Remington Arms in Ilion farm their case hardening work to this shop?
I ask this because several long time Parker people have told me that Babe would take these parts to Remington for this work after Babe had left Remington's employ.

To my knowledge Babe never worked for Remington. His father, Larry Sr., one of the original Parker Bros. Meriden employees, retired from Remington in 1955 and opened his own shop when they made the decision to no longer repair Parker guns. When Babe mustered out of the Air Force in 1958 he joined his father in the business.

In 1960 Larry Sr. cut a deal with Remington to purchase their entire inventory of parts for the Parker gun along with several specialty machines that had been surplused as obsolete by Remington after cessation of Parker gun production in 1947 (e.g., rib matting and automatic ejector setup jigs among others). After this time, Remington referred all inquiries on repair of the Parker gun to the Del Gregos.

Their very early case coloring work was most likely done by Frank Lefever in Herkimer NY, the next town over to the west of Ilion towards Utica. When Lefever closed his business, rumor had it that the case coloring work was contracted out to a specialty metals firm in northern New Jersey, who did the work for years (probably up through the late 1990s/early 2000s). The option of having Turnbull's do the case coloring for a customer desiring so was a comparatively very late development in the relationship between the two firms.

A considerable amount of work on restored guns coming out of Del Grego's was done by artisans employed by Remington in the Custom Shop on an "after hours" basis. Leo Bala, a master engraver in there, did much of the intricate checkering work on the highest grade guns and of course Bob Runge, retired master engraver, routinely did the standard re-engraving patterns on restored guns along with their wonderful upgrades.

When I took my first Parker gun to Del Grego's for a total restoration in 1969, one of the first things I noticed was the complete lack of equipment, materials and process controls (e.g., furnaces, tanks, etc.) for metal reconditioning and restoration of any kind, all of which to my knowledge were done elsewhere.