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History of Gastonia Cut M1 Carbines Pt 2

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quanjito View Drop Down
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Joined: Nov 12 2021
Location: Gastonia
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote quanjito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: History of Gastonia Cut M1 Carbines Pt 2
    Posted: Nov 14 2021 at 10:03pm
Depending who did the welding, there are some that were done so well, that it is nearly impossible to tell. The ones who had the older m1 receiver steel ground down to powder and used that to make rods and did a proper heat treat afterwards would be next to impossible to see unless you looked inside of the spring housing where you can see the "RING".
I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees,

Zappata
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GotSnlB28 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 14 2021 at 9:28pm
Enjoyed reading your posts, thanks for sharing. I'd bet there are some "barn finds" out there yet filled with scrap parts.

I haven't seen too many "rewelds" show up in auctions or on forums. Granted it's a small share of the overall carbine population, and visibility through 3 or 4 major auction sites and forums is limited too... but you'd think more than a couple should pop up.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote quanjito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 14 2021 at 4:48am
There have been many people who worked for Big Ed over the years. I will only try to mention those who have passed as the ones still alive deserve their privacy. Our family owned a number of farms that abutted the Anthony farm and as such, my father knew Big Ed for his entire life. My grandfather and Ed were both member of the Masonic lodge, 369 Gastonia, and both had similar interests. They both owned rental property, Farms and machine shops, but Ed went much further in his business endeavors. He opened a Golf Course, Owned Flea Markets, and had other endeavors also while being a City Councilman for a time. So my father and Aunts worked for Big Ed for many years. When My father got out of the Army and returned home, he started working for my Grandfather at my grandfathers machine shop, Peidmont Textile Repairs. Like almost all machine shops back then, ours had a primary function of repairing Textile machinery parts but my father was allowed to do side jobs like make parts for Car Washes for a man named Graham Bell. Sometimes My father would machine parts or reweld receivers for Ed in Exchange for complete guns. Usually M1 Carbines but every now and then a Garand or M1903A3 Springfield. Although my father was a compatent machinist and welder, the project for my father had alot of waste in that only 3 and sometimes 2 out of five receivers would weld correctly without too much warpage. My father cousin, Lawrence Holland who owned Bradley Flyer and Spindal was also doing rewelding work for Big Ed, but in his case 1917 BAR receivers. Lawrence told me he would reweld, grind and machine around 10 a month for Big Ed for about 5 Years in Exchange for M1 carbine Ammunition, M1 Garand Rifles, and everynow now and again a pistol. He did this from 1965 roughly through 75. Some minor work he did was on 1919 receivers and expermented on rewelding 1911 frames which by his account was not very succesful. Around the Seventies, he rented some property to Larry Dellinger who was a machinist and he traded with Larry for rent and sometimes gave him a gun or two. I talked with Larry a few years ago before he died and he told my father and myself that he probably rewelded close to 500 M1 Carbine receivers. He also rewelded Som BAR's , M2 .50 cal Side Plates, and even made cutaways for display. There are still a handful of people who are still alive to did even more work for Big Ed, but I will not mention their names to keep their privacy. Big Ed Himself has a small mill and lathe in his house and sometimes did repair or rebuild work for Guns like the Thompsons, and MG34's which he got a load in the 1980's that had incomplete receivers. Of course he got the proper tax stamp for all of the weapons I am sure over the years, just to keep it legal.

My father would travel out of town sometimes just because he liked to ride, and he would go to SC, Georgia and Florida Mostly, but sometimes he would travel to pennsylvania, NEW Jersey and Mayland for Genology research on our family history. He Travelled so much, I took my fourth grade year out of school essentially and spent most of that year travelling with him. Big Ed would give dad sometimes money, sometimes letters and sometimes guns to trade with people when dad would tell him he was leaving town. He would travel and see the Kocher Brothers in SC for which I was with him several times. These guys had a farm also that had a bunch of old truck trailers, shipping containers and building full of Parts. Hell, they even had an F14 Tomcat half stripped down in the middle of all of that mess. Ste stalls of one of their horse barns was full of different guns that had been demilled. being a young child, I was not impressed as I thought this stuff was no different than the scrap metal my Grandfather kept around the machine shop. But looking back, there must have been a twenty or thirty tons of scrap guns in all those buildings. I asked my father what happened to the two old men who had all that stuff, and he told me they died in the late eighties. As to what happened to their parts, my father did not have a clue, although he did intimate that alot of those parts were used for stuff that was going on in Columbia, Panama and Africa around that time period. My father went to Millville NEw Jersey several times to buy parts for Ed from some people up there. My father like what he saw up there and said he was impressed with the operation they had going. Although he said he got the feeling that Ed wasn't to hot on them. There were a number of Pawn shops in Georgia Eds Weapons went through as My father would trade the M1 carbines out for Five Civilian rifles  on trades out the back door.

Big Ed would give people things to sell for him, like he gave my father twenty of the Tombstone .50 Cal cans for my father to sell. back then, stuff like that was a hard sell, like how many people had .50's just laying around with the mounts for the cans. My father had to give them back to Ed after Six months as he couldn't sell any of them. Ed did this with many people that he knew. He had so much stuff, alot of it at the time not worth much. Like he had over twenty thousand buttplates for the 1903A3 springfield still in the original crates and wraps. He couldn't give them away back then. There was  agentleman down in Florida who had a small gunshop down in Sarasota named Jim who bought Several hundred rewelded receivers from Ed that Ed had dad take down there while we were on vacation. He had several shipping containers full of cut M1 Garands. Dad took several trips to Numrich with Ed to pick up and sell items to them up there. Several of their weapons in their arms room came from Big Ed.

It all came to an end in 1989 when my father and I took a trip to Georgia with 50 M1 carbines that were supposed to be traded out at a Pawn Shop. My father walked in with the guy, they came out of the Pawnshop and went to my fathers old pickup truck, looked at the rifles in the back. Went back inside, then three cars pulled up and around six or eight ATF Agents got out of their vehicles. They waited outside until my dad came out with the gentleman and arrested them both. What saved dad was that the guy hadn't paid yet, they were going to go to a restarunt to eat before they finished the deal. The ATF jumped the gun. But nonetheless, my father was taken off and the department of social services was called to pick me up. They took the guns but Ed Paid for a lawyer for my father and he was able to get out of jail after three days without being charged. I had to stay at a center for three days and this scared my father to death. And with this, my father quit moving guns like that, especially over state lines. He would piddle with them until he died this year, but nothing like what he was doing for Big Ed. Not to say that Ed did anything wrong in the end though, My father took the risks and accepted the potential penalties. There are other stories I have from being with Big Ed personally and some more my father told me, but those are best for another day at best, or my grave at worst.
I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees,

Zappata
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