doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Early Baker A

Many years ago I saw a Baker at a gun show with a very attractive price. It had no dog or game scenes but rather the entire lock plate was covered in scroll/rosette, been sometime & don't recall exact pattern. Bbls were twist. At the time I knew virtually nothing about the various grades of Baker, was just familiar with the name & had seen a few of the lower grades. I "Thought" because of the coverage of "Engraving" that the twist bbls were probably replaced from a lower grade gun, so did not even look further, great mistake. Was most likely an Early "B". Am not sure at this point but it does seem to me the designs were "Cut" & not etched, but this may not be correct.
I note from the above pics that even though "Adornment" declined over the years the later locks have the addition of a bridle which I would take to be a much needed mechanical improvement over the early locks.

According to Daryl Hallquist the sideplates on the early guns are etched, they are definetely not engraved in the same manner that the scroll is on the rest of the gun. My dad was an tech at Hewlett Packard in the 70s and said they made very small circuit boards by using etching and he tried to explain that it wouldnt be a big deal to etch a very detailed picture pattern on metal using photo techniques. I didnt really grasp the method though.
Ross

Bobs gun sure has nice wood. Some of my B grades have kind of plain wood. His also has the cool wavy grip cap. I only have one B grade with the wavy grip cap.

From the 'Baker Gun and Forging' album
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=17434920

Later 3 pin, engraved lockplate above.
Early 2 pin, etched lockplate below.
Lockplates were hand engraved after about serial number 3000.

Reb87 - Thanks for the lockplate progression photos. They certainly show the evolution that occurs in a product as a result of changes in economics, personnel, technology, etc.

Revdoc - I have admired the damascus patterns in the album and will try to get a good photograph to add.

Ross,

At about that time I was working my way through college. I worked several summers for Motorola making printed circuit boards for their Quasar televisions. We also produced circuit boards for government contracts. It is very a simple process. A negative image is made on a silk screen. An etch resistant ink is forced through the screen onto the part. The part is dipped into an acid bath and then the ink is removed. I know there was an earlier process that used parafin for acid etching as well.

An acid etched part would have a consistant depth to the "engraving" as there is no way to control that in the process. A hand engraver will vary the depth for artistic purposes.

Pete

Here's an excellent pic of Bob's A grade, with what is obviously special order 'Very Fine' FOUR Iron Crolle. Cool!

The bottom barrel looks like a B&W picture while the top barrel looks lie the negative.

Good observation builder. This is the mid-portion of the brls

Beautiful set of tubes! With the additional mid rib ivory sight, was the double a trap gun?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse