Taking a shine to stock finishing

Stock-finisher Shane Scase has built a reputation for his oil finishes that belies his years – though his ‘recipe’ is a closely guarded secret

- MIKE YARDLEY

London-trained gunsmith Shane Scase lights up when he speaks of wood. Although he is just 25, he has already made a name for himself due to his oil-finishing services. We first met at my local gun shop, Eastern Sporting, where he works during the week. Chase enjoys working in this well-run modern firearms business, but with an old-school apprenticeship under his belt, he also spends much time in a well-equipped home workshop; it bears witness not only to his chosen craft but his deep interest in firearms and shooting sports of all kinds.

With a life-long interest in the gun trade, Scase undertook his apprenticeship soon after finishing school at 16. “I grew up shooting with my grandad, my uncle and my dad,” he tells me. “I knew I wanted to do something in the gun trade.” He looked around at colleges and apprenticeship schemes. BA Systems and Accuracy International caught his eye. However, these were all about computers and CAD design and he wanted to acquire more traditional skills. His father had noted sagely in discussions about his future: “If you can learn to do it by hand, you can always learn to do it by machine, but you can’t do it the other way round.”

With this in mind, the two went to see Jim Spalding, a master stocker and former boat-builder on Mersea Island (and a man who, serendipitously, I first went to see when I was a similar age to Scase). This sparked more serious interest and sometime later his mother noticed Watson Bros in Bermondsey, makers of best guns, were advertising an apprenticeship – not something often seen in the small ads. Scase found himself on the road again, driving with his dad to meet Michael Louca.