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Hi Chris

I do not do the work personally although I was for many years a military weapons engineer having trained as a toolmaker with the Army.

A gunmaker friend of mine Trevor Proctor, then of Wilmslow, Cheshire, but now retired did the work. It would be difficult to price the work here in the UK as we have various rates for the work. the London trade is, and always was, expensive . There are still jobbing gunsmiths in Birmingham and also a lot of freelance outworkers who have branched out on their own, usually from the big London names. Mark Sullivan is, or was, one such actioner but there are others based from the Midlands down to the South Coast.

The problem with a forend is that apart from the ‘iron itself’ which must fit the action knuckles of the particular rifle, you have the ejector work, the pipe for locking to the loop and the release be that a Deeley type latch or, as with more modern Holland’s, the Anson pushrod, although some early Holland’s for example had the lever catch.

In the UK at present just a simple replacement of the forend wood for an old rifle would at London rates be in the £1000’s of pounds , a complete replacement forend, if say by Holland’s, would, and this is a pure guess at present, see little to no change from £ 5,000 and quite possibly upwards of this. Machined parts only get you so far in gunmaking as you know, once machined, they have to be fitted and then ejectors timed and regulated, all costs money I am afraid. I do not know Holland’s current hourly rate on their timesheets but from last dealings now over 10 years ago it was then over £150 per hour, this is not what the craftsmen get, but rather what the company then charged for their time per job.

Regards

Jonathan

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