A number of my guns have engraved "barrel wedges". Done well, I think they look great. Here are some, of varying quality, but I like them all.
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Gun Engraving
- Thread starter Pinfire
- Start date
A number of my guns have engraved "barrel wedges". Done well, I think they look great. Here are some, of varying quality, but I like them all.
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
I did a similar treatment on my Ruger No1 when I engraved it years ago. I believe it to be more common on "custom" pieces than "factory" pieces for the reasons I gave above. Best English guns, even though most houses had a "house" pattern are considered "custom" rather than factory IMO.
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
Yes. I did that back in. the early 90's. My first attempt at engraving a modern gun and I did it more as a "practice piece" than anything else. Prior to that I had only done a handful of muzzleloaders which is a completely different style. I did the floor plate for a my Dad's 375HH and thought it turned out fairly well. Those are the only two "modern" gun s I have done, everything else has been muzzleloaders. It is SO difficult to get a decent picture of engraving. I have been toying with the idea of stripping off the blueing from the receiver and lever but, if I screw it up, my hot blueing guy (Bevan King) is no longer with us and I don't know where I would get it reblued.
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
No I did not but IIRC, the lever was a bear to cut, like cutting flint. The reciever and barrel were not TOO bad but still harder to cut that what I was used to. That is part of the reason that the engraving is shallow, flat and uninteresting. Just lack of experience.
Londonshooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
J. C. A. Brun, Paris
I came across this example from the collection of The Met. Coincidentally, it's a pinfire. A brief written description, expert audio commentary, and many more photos of this gun are here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24957
I came across this example from the collection of The Met. Coincidentally, it's a pinfire. A brief written description, expert audio commentary, and many more photos of this gun are here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24957
I came across this example from the collection of The Met. Coincidentally, it's a pinfire. A brief written description, expert audio commentary, and many more photos of this gun are here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24957
Look at those hammers... the ultimate squirrel gun? Aye, the gun is a masterpiece of relief engraving and sculpture, from a time when the pin-fire was the world's greatest and most advanced sporting gun. The gun pictured was shown at the International Exposition of 1867 in Paris (Exposition universelle d'art et d'industrie). But when it comes to appreciating the state of the gunmaker's art at the time, I turn to the earlier International Exhibition of 1862, or the Great London Exposition, which ran from May to November 1862, beside the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington. In The Record of the Great Exhibition of 1862 (published in 1863), the great Irish gunmaker John Rigby wrote at length on gunmaking at the time, and the following on the subject of French art-guns:
"It is in the production of highly ornamental firearms that the French gunmakers show the most marked superiority over all competitors. The Parisian makers have carried their emulation on this point so far, that they have established a peculiar manufacture which is nowhere else attempted. Their “fusils de luxe” are no longer arms, properly so called, but works of art; the form of the gun being used as a pretext for the most lavish display of the art of the sculptor, engraver, wood-carver, and inlayer in gems and precious metals. When examining one of these chef d’oeuvres of art, we are struck with the ingenuity which has adapted designs, often bizarre and incongruous, to the uses of a ####, guard, or heelplate, and are almost inclined to feel regret that the artist was trammelled in his conception by an attempt to conform the outline of his group to the conventional limits of these parts. In enumerating the exhibitors of ornamented guns, we may pass over the British section almost without a word. It is true that the engraving in many cases is very well and tastefully executed, but the designs are conventional for the most part, and no attempt is made to depart from the beaten track. … An adequate notice of the various specimens of artistic firearms in the French court would far exceed the limits of this article, and would indeed come more properly under the department of fine arts."
Meanwhile in France
I'll see your MF Ideal Model Ideal D'Art model 356 Tir au Pigeon and raise you a MF Ideal Grade 7RE-C Perfection. (The model naming system changed in 1931).
For interest sake, mine is the next model down from the Ace of Spades. A MF researcher I know from South America (has written a couple books on the subject) thinks that mine was the highest grade intended to be used for hunting. The Ace of Spades guns were not expected to go afield.
sillymike
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Beautiful gun!
- Love how (if you look quickly) the dog and birds will somehow disappear in the scroll work. Also pretty impressive how the barrel lug (or whatever they're called in English) just blend with the receiver.
- Love how (if you look quickly) the dog and birds will somehow disappear in the scroll work. Also pretty impressive how the barrel lug (or whatever they're called in English) just blend with the receiver.
Hahahaha! The French.....both brilliant and insane when it comes ot gun design. But I will say, while the MF Ideal gets little love from the "round action" aficionados, it is a fantastic gun to carry afield, once you've come to grips with the safety. I looked at one about 18 months ago...chambered in 470NE. No reinforcement of the action required. It may be the strongest action ever designed. It certainly puts a M21 to shame.
Ive seen many MF Ideal engraved in a similar pattern to the Ace of Spades you posted. Ive only seen 2 others that have been engraved similarly to mine. Which makes me think it was done by an outside craftsman (which the factory did sometimes). Both examples.....one about 10 years ago and one last year.....were 16 gauge Ace of Spades models and I'm positive all were done by the same engraver. All appeared to be from the 1920's.
sillymike
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Joseph Lang Lever Cocking, 16 bore
The safety has me curious, as it looks like it would be counter intuitive to switch it off?
- Assuming you're right handed and used to operate the safety with your thumb.
Had one of these, also a Scottish gun with the same safety arrangement, and it was an easy adjustment.a couple of boxes on the range and it became automatic and felt natural. Great guns, those Langs are not really sidelocks, they are a patented trigger plate action.
I can’t remember if I touched on the subject of dolphin fish (Mahi-mahi, or Dorado) motifs on Georgian and Victorian gun hammers. With the advent of hammerless guns, these little quirks of history just disappeared.
This fish was first named 'Duratho' by John White, who accompanied the explorers Walter Raleigh and Richard Grenville on their travels in the 1580s; the name became 'dolphin' in common usage, perhaps from the fish’s habit of swimming ahead of boats, like the true dolphins. The dolphin fish became a popular decorative flourish in the Regency and Victorian eras, and frequently found its way onto fire-arms, usually on the hammers. The gun is signed for the firm of John Edward Barnett & Sons, London, and dates from the late 1850s.
The Dorado, courtesy of NOAA.
This fish was first named 'Duratho' by John White, who accompanied the explorers Walter Raleigh and Richard Grenville on their travels in the 1580s; the name became 'dolphin' in common usage, perhaps from the fish’s habit of swimming ahead of boats, like the true dolphins. The dolphin fish became a popular decorative flourish in the Regency and Victorian eras, and frequently found its way onto fire-arms, usually on the hammers. The gun is signed for the firm of John Edward Barnett & Sons, London, and dates from the late 1850s.
The Dorado, courtesy of NOAA.
