by Terry Wieland
The name “von Atzigen” is not familiar to most, but in my opinion it should be: My friend Edwin von Atzigen, who died in early July, was the finest restorer of vintage firearms I have ever met, bar none.
Probably the name that springs to mind when you think of restoring an old gun is Doug Turnbull, and Doug certainly deserves all the accolades he receives. He has done some work for me, and it has all been excellent. But the rifles and shotguns I got back from Edy were in a class by themselves.
The name deserves a bit of explanation. As Edy (pronounced Eddy) explained it to me, the diminutive of Edwin is Edy, not Eddy, as it is with Edward. Most people, seeing it, think it’s Edy (pronounced “Eedy,” as in Eydie Gormé) and wonder at a woman doing gunsmithing work. And, Edy being Swiss, he was as exact when it came to his name as he was to everything else.
Edy had a few years on me, so he was in his early 80s when he died, but it’s only now I realize how little I really knew about him despite our long association: 35 years, now I think back. He was born and trained in Switzerland, worked for Flaig’s for some years, then emigrated to Canada and, by coincidence, settled in my home town in southern Ontario. There he stayed, working out of his shop in the basement of a small bungalow.
We had several friends in common, among them Siegfried Trillus, an old-school German gunmaker who lived near Toronto, and who built one of the finest rifles I own. Siegfried died in 1993 and Edy, who had worked with him, and learned from him, on several projects, acquired many of his tools and jigs and whatnot.
The first restoration job he did for me was on a Savage Model 1899, circa 1916, originally special-ordered as a Schützen-type rifle. I was open-mouthed when I saw the finished article, but for Edy it was child’s play.
Much more difficult was an E.M. Reilly side-by-side I acquired in 2004, which had spent 35 years in the rafters of a henhouse and was an unholy mess. The stock was black with age, some external metal parts were corroded beyond repair, the checkering was completely worn off. I bought it for the action (a P. Webley screw-grip treble-bit) and never expected to see it shoot. Edy took it into his care and, about three years later, I picked up a beautifully restored English double with the most beautiful French walnut stock I have ever seen, anywhere, before or since.
Along the way, Edy had coaxed the oil out of the stock (18 months), bent it from cast-on to cast-off, lengthened it with a piece of ebony-like German rubber he’d been saving for a special project, reshaped the side panels, recut the checkering, made new metal bits for the forend, along with some new screws, inlet some ebony pieces where he’d removed rotted wood, applied a London oil finish to the walnut, and delivered a 6 lb., 4 oz. masterpiece that’s been my lucky bird gun ever since.
Later, he restored a Schultz & Larsen Model 65 DL in 7×61 Sharpe & Hart, which he found for me — he knew I’d wanted one since childhood — and a lovely thing it once again is. Around the same time, I found a side-lever W&C Scott & Son hammergun, which was in abysmal shape. I turned it over to Edy and, a year or so later, he called with the breathless news that the walnut on the Scott was even better than on the Reilly. As it turned out, it really wasn’t as nice in my opinion, but it’s certainly right up there.
Edy could do virtually anything on a gun or rifle that required doing. He could buy a chunk of walnut and a barreled action in the white, and deliver you a finished rifle in a year or two. He could re-lay the barrels of a double gun, or fine-tune a trigger or, for that matter, make a new trigger.
Edy von Atzigen was a big-game hunter and dearly loved rifles but, although he never said as much, I think his favorite activity was taking a once-fine gun someone had badly neglected or written off, and returning it to vibrant life. He did it with my Reilly, my Scott, two Savage 99s, and the Schultz & Larsen. If you have a copy of my book, Vintage British Shotguns, the P. Webley on the dust jacket was one he restored for Dick Stephens; Edy also restored for Dick an Ithaca 4E trap gun, which Dick later traded to me when he could no longer shoot trap.
Dick and Edy are both now gone, but the above-mentioned guns and rifles live on, and a good portion of my declining years is being spent trying to figure where I can find good homes for them. I figure part of Edy von Atzigen lives on in each one of them, and I want him to be remembered.
As he ages, Gray’s shooting editor Terry Wieland finds himself increasingly grateful no such restoration is possible with humans. Don’t ask why.