doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The lure of nice engraving......

I don't know about you lads , but I'm a real sucker for fine engraving.
I know,I know, It's really the Gun itself I should be checking (& I do, eventually, at least now),best to have a plainer good condition gun than a more fancy one with warts.
I pure am mad for those Ribband?/ carved 3D fences you see creeping up to the Action Face/Standing Breech on some better Francottes.
My first ever gun was bought in this spirit .
A lovely 1904 Francotte 18e,& a fancy one.
Sure, it has some warts..it had a shim in the hook,,wich fell out after a round of 5 Stand,some one had filed the breech end of the bbls during the shimming/rejoint nightmare,the back trigger had a pull of around 10lb , & finally,in Abe Chaber's opinion, had been re stocked & Chequered by a Gorrilla...OK ,so I didn't notice the 1/16" gaps filled with wood putty And the missed forend tip uechelon(sp)
But,yup...it had the best of engraving & had the nicest damn carved fences I've ever seen before or since.
That list,especially the last bit cracks me up now.
But I was a whiter shade of pale a minute or so into Abes look-over report.
I remember finding the Old site & asking some rather nervouse Qs & getting refered to Abe
He helped me get my $$ back, & I sure learned a bit.
Any similar horrors?
Or am I just a real eejit?
Franc

Not really a similar horror, just a time consuming project, my Parker VH. I started the restoration of that gun shortly after purchasing it in 1973. I recently got it back from its last gunsmith after visiting about ten of them. It is a wonder, came out great, but took over 30 years.

You're absolutely right. For me, there's nothing more rewarding than looking over the pictures of a fine Model 21 Grand Royal. So I just had to have a high grade 21 for myself. A Custom Grade was the best I could do at the time. But that's good enough for me. People say all that gold and engraving won't make the gun shoot any better. Who cares how good it shoots? It's the fine craftsmanship that counts. Besides, people are going to have to realize it won't be long before they'll have to hide their guns to keep them. Who wants to pull out an ugly piece of junk that shoots perfect to look at? I'd rather have something beautiful that shoots around a tree myself. Good thinkin'.

I guess I have the same affliction, at least to some extent. I have some early high grade Ithaca doubles that, if they were field grade guns, I never would have bought in the first place. One is shimmed, another the toplever does not stay to the right when the gun is open, and a couple have some oil soaking andor small cracks in the head of the stock as well as checkering worn to the point to where it's almost gone. But the engraving is still as beautiful as new. I can't help but think back to what a different time and world the engravers who did this work lived in. I can still hold and enjoy part of that world that will never be again.

Isn't it nice to look at a gun and imagine all the fine work that someone took the time to do? Hours of pain slaving work that was done on a gun by a really skilled craftsman. And they probably had poor working conditions, retired half deaf from all the noise they had to put up with. Some of them lost fingers from the unsafe working conditions or crippled up hands from all of the fine work. The old collectibles are getting more scarce and it is nice when someone appreciates them. And it is nice that there are great people who can bring the old ones back and mend them to make them like new.

I'm absolutely nuts about the Boss style of engraving. None other comes near it in my opinion. I don't have a Boss but I do have a Rosson with similiar style engraving plus a partridge on the top lever. I don't expect I'll ever have a Boss but I sure like to look at 'em.
npm

I suffer from both engraving envy and fine wood envy. If a gun has both, which too many do have, I just loose all self control. My wood envy explains my ever increasing wood stock rack which I confess has over 100 stock blanks. I will never use them all, but still seem to buy a few more each month. Crotch Black Walnut, Crotch and Quarter Sawn English Walnut, Myrtle wood in burl, crotch and fiddle with spalting, French Walnut, Claro Walnut, Birds Eye Maple, Shell Flame Maple, Bocote, Cocobolo, Olive Wood, you name it and it is there. Thank God there is no such thing as a engraving rack.

That's Funny , an Engraving rack!
But I guess a gun rack ain't much different,if'n they're engraved.
But I am able to control myself now..though the Wood Envy has been on an uptrend .
cheers
Franc

Franc, you ol'slodger you!
I've gone from a London style engraving to the doodles on a Sterlingworth in a matter of a couple years. Its too much of a eye strain to see that stuff anyway.

All this talk of racks of beautiful wood and crotches...fine engraving....doodles.


And no pics ?