Author Topic: Blunderbuss #4, ...DONE !!! (Read 39950 times)

Craig Wilcox · « **Reply #175 on:** October 19, 2019, 05:08:41 PM »

Doggone, Dave - you can engrave anything on one of my rifles any time you want. And no fair running off to the desert for some ol' missile tests!

Really like that cannon and the crossed implements!

davec2 · « **Reply #176 on:** October 20, 2019, 07:25:22 AM »

Thanks Craig. I’ve been running off doing rocket stuff for nearly 40 years now. Getting close to time to quit and finish all the other projects I haven’t had time for !

SingleMalt · « **Reply #177 on:** October 20, 2019, 11:25:26 PM »

Quote from: davec2 on October 18, 2019, 11:38:46 PM

Single Malt,

Thanks for the idea. I bought a tub of printers ink to do this originally and I can still use it, but I have to dig through a very solid, very thick top layer to find some usable ink. I will try getting a smaller amount from a print shop.

Dave, I just thought of this, rake the skin out of the can and keep using it. Use a putty knife, preferably with a metal blade, and cut around the wall of the can and rake it out onto a sheet of paper and discard. The ink will continue to "skin" over because of the dryers in the ink, but you can manage that. There are products in the printing industry to prevent ink skin, but they aren't foolproof. Give it a try and let me know how it works.

davec2 · « **Reply #178 on:** October 21, 2019, 02:14:07 AM »

Will do, thanks

davec2 · « **Reply #179 on:** December 06, 2019, 09:27:21 PM »

Well....this thread seems to go on forever.....I just have not had a long enough run of free time to get it done, but I am determined to be finished before Christmas. I finally had the time to concentrate on engraving enough to finish the butt plate. Now on to the last engraving on the barrel.

Note to Dennis : Can you fix the "old URL" issue with the photos in this post as well ? Thanks

Marcruger · « **Reply #180 on:** December 06, 2019, 09:45:44 PM »

I love this thread. High art. God Bless, Marc

45-110 · « **Reply #181 on:** December 06, 2019, 09:53:34 PM »

I have a real soft spot for all things artillery, so this motif is exemplary to me! Superb composition and execution!
kw

davec2 · « **Reply #182 on:** December 06, 2019, 10:17:47 PM »

Marc.....thanks for the vote of confidence...

45-110.....having been a gunnery officer in the US Navy, I share your enthusiasm for the big guns. I love the quote from Fredrick the Great in the 18th century sometime. He said, "Artillery lends dignity to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl." One of the things that I dislike about 18th century engraving is that whenever the engraver decided to throw a cannon barrel into a panoply of arms, it always came out looking like a lopsided beer barrel that had been used for target practice. The cannon of the 18th century have a beauty and symmetry all their own. They should look the way they really looked in any depiction rather than looking like a non descript, thick walled piece of pipe laying around....

Craig Wilcox · « **Reply #183 on:** December 06, 2019, 11:00:00 PM »

Ah, Dave - you've done a splendid job on that old carriage piece. Modern cannon are not very "picturesque", but they are very effective. On the carrier (Intrepid), we had a 5" 38 cal right outboard of my work space - and I learned every position on that except gun captain. It is very accurate when firing, which always amazed me. Ship moving forward at about 20+ mph, rolling and pitching, yet able to hit a towed sled with no problem! Wish we were ab;e to do that with our muzzle loaders!
PS - never mind the jets taking off and landing, or the AD's, or banging/screeching from the arresting gear engines - I believe my hearing loss is from that 5" and it's penetrating bark.

smart dog · « **Reply #184 on:** December 06, 2019, 11:04:21 PM »

Hi Dave,
That is great!! Yes, all the engraved guns looked like howitzers at best. It gets worse when it comes to animals. Beautiful work as always, Dave. Please keep posting!

dave

BOB HILL · « **Reply #185 on:** December 07, 2019, 11:44:57 AM »

Thanks for posting this excellent work, Dave. It’s always humbling to study.
Bob

davec2 · « **Reply #186 on:** December 07, 2019, 08:05:54 PM »

Craig - I understand completely. On the destroyer, I had a 5-54 automatic gun (along with torpedo tubes, an ASROC launcher, and a Tartar missile launcher). The 5"-54 could put out ~30 rounds per minute. It was on the foc'sle and I was usually stationed on either bridge wing maybe 30 feet from the muzzle with a set of sound powered phones talking to gun plot in CIC. Between that and then being the Main Propulsion Assistant and working in the engine and fire rooms for years, my hearing went early.... $:-\$

David - YES !! The animals in the old engraving !! Most of them looked like knock kneed, broke winded, somnambulating excuses for what they were supposed to be. Funny how the old engravers could do such beautiful design work and yet not be able to do animals very accurately.

And thanks to all for the kind words

jerrywh · « **Reply #187 on:** December 07, 2019, 10:24:28 PM »

Dave.
The engravers in the guild and I have often talked about the cartoonish looking animals the old gun engravers in Europe did. The most popular consensus is that they knew the difference but did this intentionally probably because it was popular. In that era there were hundreds if not thousands of book engravers who did very realistic looking animals for the printing of books. Most of the book engravers were just kids some of them were only 12 years old. so they knew the difference and had the ability to do the same on guns. For some reason they just didn't.

davec2 · « **Reply #188 on:** December 07, 2019, 10:53:37 PM »

Jerry,

Thanks. I have not looked at much in the way of book engraving, but I will. I remember our conversation about how young many European engravers started out in the trade. For those who missed it, below is an excerpt from an old post of mine ......

On the subject of young engravers:

In 1978 I was a junior officer aboard a Navy destroyer on a western Pacific deployment. We had been in and out of the US Naval base at Subic Bay. One day as I was on the pier, there was a small boy with a little portable work bench doing something for a sailor from another ship. I walked over to see what was up and the lad was engraving brass belt buckles. He asked me if I wanted a buckle. I asked how long it would take... and he said about 20 minutes ! He had a small vice, a single square (obviously home made) graver, a sharpening stone, and a little hammer. This is what he engraved for me…..in about 20 minutes. He wanted $5……I gave him $20. He smiled a lot. I asked him how old he was. He was 9.

davec2 · « **Reply #189 on:** December 08, 2019, 01:13:45 AM »

Dennis was kind enough to explain to me how to fix the photos at the beginning of this thread so that they pop up automatically....and I fixed them. Thanks Dennis !

Dave C

Ed Wenger · « **Reply #190 on:** December 10, 2019, 03:03:49 AM »

Absolutely beautiful work, Dave! I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments regarding cannon and animals. Probably why I’ve always been a little on the fence about “folksy” attributes as well.

Ed

davec2 · « **Reply #191 on:** December 10, 2019, 09:06:30 AM »

Ed,

I understand the desire to do things the way they were done in the 18th century (or 17th / 19th), but I just cannot force myself to engrave or carve funny looking stuff on a gun I just spent a lot of time trying to make look great. Is I also understand your comment about being on the fence about "folksy" designs. What I engrave may not be traditional, but then again, it really isn't the 18th century and I'm chatting with all of you about this on a computer ! (It just looks better to me.)

davec2 · « **Reply #192 on:** December 15, 2019, 04:42:29 AM »

Amid the maelstrom of Christmas preparations, I am completing one of my least favorite chores....final polishing of the barrel in preparation for engraving. The good news is that the breach of the barrel is the last engraving to be done on this gun. The only thing left after this is the final finish on the wood. I will probably not get this project done done until after the first of the year, but the end is in sight. I got the polishing done today, along with some engraving on the underside of the barrel. Tomorrow I will start in on engraving the breach.......

Ed Wenger · « **Reply #193 on:** December 16, 2019, 05:40:47 AM »

There’s something very satisfying about well polished metal. Looks great!

Ed

davec2 · « **Reply #194 on:** December 16, 2019, 05:59:52 AM »

Ed,

You're right....there is something very satisfying.....but there is also something very tedious about getting to the "satisfying" part...

davec2 · « **Reply #195 on:** January 09, 2020, 10:05:27 AM »

After the pandemonium of the holidays, I had a little time to head into the final engraving run on this blunderbuss. I am really so close I am anxious to get this gun finished for Andrei.

Started tonight with the barrel breach and wedding band boarders......

Pukka Bundook · « **Reply #196 on:** January 09, 2020, 03:00:19 PM »

That's beautiful neat work Dave!
Congrats!!
Very elegant and tasteful.

Flint62Smoothie · « **Reply #197 on:** January 09, 2020, 06:08:05 PM »

Elegant work that just ‘pops’ - wow!

And can you imagine the work/art that 9-year old boy must now be capable of? Yeesh, at age 9 ... some of us were still struggling to keep the crayon ‘inside the lines’, LOL!

smokepole45cal · « **Reply #198 on:** January 09, 2020, 09:55:35 PM »

Commendable engraving.

Dave, are you using a Lindsay Airgraver?

davec2 · « **Reply #199 on:** January 09, 2020, 10:43:49 PM »

Smokepole - No. Most of the work is done with a 40 year old GraverMeister. Some I do by hand and some with a hammer and graver....depends on what I am doing

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Author Topic: Blunderbuss #4, ...DONE !!! (Read 39950 times)

smokepole45cal