Yes nick does the best work I have ever seen. I found him
when I was researching various forms of darkening for parkerising. I wanted to restore my Bren MKII but I wanted it to be perfect anyone can just blast and dunk in a tank. I wanted the colours to be perfect and it to just look like it left inglis.
I found him on a small website where he was talking about his passion which was restoration work and how he has perfected the park process. He also mentioned he has figured out the "green park" process and that it did not include dyes or oil dunking, crap like that. He posted pics and I was amazed.
So I called him up and we discussed my bren. He said he could do it and I sent it to him.
Be forwarned about people who see restoration work as a means of making money only and who see it as labourous and time consuming.
Nick see this as stress relief and truly enjoys his work and you can tell. The end result is allways perfection.
To top it off he's a great guy to deal with.
Here is my original post of almost 5 years ago I guess? where I took a poorly treated deact bren and told him to do his best for me.
From this thread, feel free to add to it to keep it from being deleted eventually
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67641
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From 03-22-2006, 02:15 AM
(I was so excited I stayed up all night after thge drive back from windsor just to post this review)
A while ago I have been looking to refinish my Inglis Bren MKII as it had some pretty rough dings in it. It was drilled, split in some areas but it had a nice dark grey park to it that I loved the look of. Now every where I went for a quote offered either a black oxide or a light grey park. I tried a black oxide and a park from one other other "folks" a few years ago on a deact and refused to take this Bren to those butchers again.
I got it back scratched, and the finish usually bled out in about a week.
I,m sure you have all run into these problems as well with the stove top gunsmiths out there who charge an arm and a leg to make you gun look like crap then give you a hard time when you dont like the look of it.
So I started surfing the net looking for someone who might know what there talking about and know how to properly park. I found lots of so called experts claiming to do this and that to get a true military grade
green or dark grey park. But in each case it was just the same junk you saw every where else.
Then one night I got an email from one a gentlemen who stated he does professional military grade park work. He sent me some photo's and I was blown away. He does Grey, dark grey if you have something like my Bren and if you have a USGI unit like a BAR, Thompson or Garand he can duplicate the finish perfectly with his Green park. Yup thats right green park.
At first I thought it might be paint or other cheats but he assured me it was not. It was true parkerising and he does it with the same chemicals used back in the day, not crap you brew up in your backyard when your wife is out shopping.
He also claimed it will not bleed and if your not happy with the results then he's not happy. It was obvious from talking to him after all this time he really knew his stuff and like me is a perfectionist when it comes to my milsurps.
Then to top it off he's in ontario just south of Windsor.
So he sent me some pics of his work and I was so impressed I hosted them for him here.
http://www.pbase.com/mrclark/vulcan_gun_refinishing
Have a look.
Then he sent me some test samples so I could have a look at some colours for my Bren. My Inglis bren originally came with a Grey or dark grey park and I wanted to make it look as mil spec as possible. I decided on the Dark grey for my Bren and Green for my 1919A4 when I get time to bring it up to him.
So I packed up my bren and he got working on it for me. He contacted me a few times to ask some questions about how I wanted this to look and that, when I wanted it etc etc. Never had anyone ask that before, this guy actually seemed to care? Hell he even drifted out some of the small pins in the gun that held on the flashhider to make sure there was no cosmo under them.
Hmm the last guy who did work on one of my stens just dunked it in a tank for a few minutes and charged me for what looked like cadpat afterwards.
Anyhow he contacted me and stated it was done. So I drove to windsor anxiously awaiting to see my Bren.
Well let me tell you something I have
NEVER EVER SEEN PARKERISING DONE THIS GOOD BEFORE. Its flawless, no imperfections or blemishes, it does not bleed, the blasting was done in such a way that you can barely tell it had been done, the colours are deep and rich. Honestly it is by far the best parking I have ever seen. I,m blown away. I am planning on sending him everything I own that needs work.
The gun now looks mint and not in any way like it had been worked on. Even the small hand scribed stock numbers on the barrel nut are retained as well as all the cartouches are as they were when I sent the gun to him.
He then showed me his collection as he is a very serious milsurp collector as well. He showed me a few of the items he also does in the green park, like his garands and M1 carbines. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE. Not only was the green park just as amazing I thought it was his guns looked just like they left the factory, on top of that he also does wood refinishing. His guns looked mint from the stock to the rcvr.
If you have a gun that you are deciding to restore and to restore to its original glory you will not be dissapointed.
His name is NICK KAIKKONEN and is the owner of Vulcan Gun Refinishing. supair@sympatico.ca (his email) he can also be contacted at
519-723-4009 or Paged at 519-561-4349
It was awesome. Never seen anything like it. If your an enthusiast for quality like I am give him a call or email him.
His prices are great and on top he is a real gentleman.
Heres some quick pics I took there some better ones to come later once the oil is absorbed and I find a better drop sheet in the back
