Here's a few pics of my work I said I'd post if there was any interest. Seems to be some!
Most all of these are cartridge arms and I appologize if they are out of place on this forum. My only intent was to display the engraving so I have picked photos that show small areas of the guns instead of the entire piece.
Some of this is with hammer & chisel,,,then some is with a Lindsey Palm Engraver more recently as my ability to hold the traditional tools failed.
The animals, both gold and those just cut into the steel are all done the same. I still do those with a hammer and small blade punch/chisel. Simply a piece of 1/8dia drill rod sharpened to a very acute angle and of late stuck into a bigger diameter piece of steel for easy handling.
Resting my wrists on the vise allows me to work with this system still. Alot of air powered graver users do Bullino (dot) shading with their machines. I just haven't gotten to that point yet and I like this style anyway. It's served me well for a long time.
The tiny blade makes the cross hatch marks as a person doing pencil drawing would do for the shading. Various tones can be created depending on how much cross hatching is done and how fine it is. On gold it makes different shades of color all the way to black also. I use a hammer, mostly a medium engravers hammer for this just 'cause it feels right. My regular hammer when I still used one ws a 4oz Craftsman BallPeen. Did everything with that including shading 24k inlays and never had a problem. Whatever works for you.
It's fairly fast to work up a figure this way. Tiny raised burr of the stabbed line creates a shadow also giving it the same effect as the more common Bullino style egraving where tiny individual raised dots are actually the burr and they create a shadow.
No ink or coloring in any of the cuts. Most of the parts are shown in the white. The bottom of the shotgun action/ goose has been given a grey finish with nitric acid though.
My one and only M/L build of late. Engraving on the lock and furniture but my pics didn't come out at all. Lock tail marked 'No 4',,,,the other 3 were done almost 50 yrs ago.
Made this one last summer. 50cal 7/8"oct. Started with a squared cut stock block that was already channeled for the bbl and ramrod when I found it at a show.
So I bought a GM 50cal bbl to keep it as light as possible and then a bunch of hardware to make something that looked good to me.
Siler lock. Made some mistakes but it was fun. Just under 400 shots so far.
Remington Hepburn S/S underlever. Done with Lindsey Palm engraver
One of the last hammer & chisel jobs I did. Really struggled through this one
RBL 28 pattern
Owners request for his favorite K9 on the bottom of his Win21.
24k gold. Done from 3 snap shot photos supplied at the time,,, I left off his Santa hat.
About 1"+ actual size IIRC. That was done probably 10 years ago.
Another Win21 24k inlay on trigger plate. Grouse done using same technique
of using small blade chisel and hammer for the details..
Upgraded Parker shotgun. This is a hammer and chisel job from 15(?) years ago.
Bottom of a Lefever Nitro Spec. I upgraded a bit. The scroll is cut with a Lindsey,,the
goose (and the ducks on the sides) are done the old way.
Grey finish w/nitric acid. Did this one last year.
Last three are of a Colt 38 revolver. Some of the engraving on the bottom of the bbl at the muzzle,,placing gold bands
into the bbl,, and the side plate with the Colt pony logo inlayed in 24k.
I rust blued this one when finished.
First job with the Lindsey IIRC
You can engrave with the simplest of tools if you have everything working for you. The air assisted tool allowed me to keep working after doing it the traditional way for 40+ years. I'd still like working that way and wish I could still use the tools. But reality has a way of stepping in.
Find a way that works for you and go with it.
