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André – you won’t have to look at too many German or Austrian guns to see that they haven’t been filling the pores for that long. In most European gunmaking countries and the UK too, the wood was seen by gunmakers as something to hold on to their excellent metal work and engraving with.

In the last 10 or so years, this has changed a dramatically for all makers, and it has largely been at the request/demand of the American market. Americans would rather have good wood than engraving, whereas most Europeans were just the opposite. Generally speaking, it was a cultural difference.

So European makers can and do fill the pores and use nicer grades of wood today, but traditionally they have charged more for these as they weren’t seen as being important gunmakers' customers.

If you look at the highest end of the English guns, you’ll still encounter pretty plain wood on the lower grades up until recently.

Here is a 20 bore Boss SxS made in the 1960’s. I can’t imagine a higher quality SxS shotgun from a better maker, but it still has a very, plain piece of wood. The photo is not the best, but you can clearly see the wood is sub standard for what we would expect today on a new Boss.


Yes, you will find lot’s of older HEYM doubles with unfilled pores, but all new made rifles have the pores filled. Here is one made last year that’s sitting near my desk. Although the finish is “matte” and dull, this is still the lowest grade “PH” with all of the pores filled.


The higher grade built-up finishes are also available, but they are typically seen on higher grade guns, and this type of work costs more. But clearly the wood is high grade and the pores are all filled.


For the vintage and grade of your FS, it has the finish and grade of wood that would have been expected on it. It is, nonetheless, a very nice and well made rifle.

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