I was gifted a complete set of gravers, chasing hammer, engravers vise, etc.- everything needed to scratch designs into metal. The thing is, I know enough to be dangerous about the process, but want to learn more. Has anyone here gone down that road and can offer advise? Short of taking a sabbatical and going off to a a mountain top and devoting myself to a guru, are there practical tutorials out there that a do-it-yourself kind of guy can tap into?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rifle%20engraving&sm=3

http://www.amazon.com/Engraving-His...&sr=8-2&keywords=rifle+engraving


Personal knowledge? Zip.

Good luck!

Good luck !!!! i tried checkering a few times that was bad enough!!

Start by sharpening up the lines on an old "K" that way you don't have to create the patterns from scratch (pun intended).

Wouldn't it be better to grind the lines off of a K and start from scratch?

no no no if you really want to learn fast try it on a monarch grade just grind it flat first.. brownells oxpho cold blue will work nicely to bring back the original look.
I know about this... Bubba told me

plab

Hey Gary,

Please let me know when you get to this level.

I am sure you will!

Definitely let me know when you are this good !!!! I realize its on a marlin

I really like that engraved 99 with an elk on it. Did you do that?

No, A German gunsmith from the 1950s. Link below has info on him.

http://www.germanguns.com/upload/showthread.php?740-M1903-Springfield-Custom-by-H-amp-H-Zehner

Should be up to that skill level next week. Send me all the guns you want me to do. Be sure they are in at least 99% condition, preferably with their original hang tags. Don't hate me if the deer look like Beagles and the elk look like Labradors, and all the oak leaves look suspiciously like cannabis leaves.

Don't think that is an Elk. Crowns on top indicate Stag. Looks like very nice engraving though. Tom

Actually a Stag is an Elk. Same species, just at distant ends of the breed. Not as common as a Stag but elk will sometimes "crown" at the top of the antlers, just like a stag. The difference being the length of the main beam as elk grow much longer antlers than their cousins the Stag. Just sayin. . ., its an elk.

Umm.. european stag is almost always a red deer, not an elk. Related, but not the same species.

Gary
What Ya Need to Know,
I Know You have Seen Some Of My Stuff.
Steve

Calhoun, um. . sorry to differ, but while I would never question you on anything Savage, I do know elk from a perspective most elk hunters will never know, as I have raised them, and even done artificial insemination (not mine) with my herd getting the best genetics known. All "deer creatures" are related but distantly. They fall under the Cervid category, but only an elk can breed with an elk. A red-deer is not a deer, it is an elk. They are related enough to breed and produce offspring. They are both in the elk family.

1899sav, you are an artist, and that is just amazing.

Steve,
You still got the one with Chief Lame Deer on receiver? I never get tired of looking at that one.

Steve,

You do really nice work!!

PennDog

I have to admit I'd heard it both ways and did a quick search earlier before I replied. They can produce fertile offspring, but recently they are being considered different species as per DNA analysis done in the last 5-10 years. Think of dogs and wolves.. different species, but can interbreed. Oddly enough, the genetics seem to indicate that the european red deer is more closely related to the sika deer than to north american elk.

American elk - cervus canadensis
Euro red deer - cervus elaphus

All 3 are in the elk family and it is very common to breed them together for various reasons, although being a purist, I would never let a Red Deer breed with my elk. Red Deer "farmers" often bring in American Elk genetics to increase body size and create hybrid vigor, a more healthy animal, think Mule, same deal. New Zealand did the same thing. There are many different branches in the elk family, the "Red Deer", Rocky Mtn., Manitoban, Roosevelt, Thule, Sika. Never paid much attention to the Sika, but they too have been bred with North American Elk. Ofspring was "Silk" I think. Not kidding. But they are all elk, or they would not be able to breed within each others groups.

Are we slighly off topic? ya think?

It's okay, it's gnoahh's thread. I can outrun him, I think.

My prediction:

gotta love it !!!! Calhoun makes it look so easy !!! :):):) I like that style ...... tempted to ask him if he could do my little H ??? That way I could just ride it like a hobby horse to the woods !!! LOL

Gary, I have faith in you. After all, its nothing but a chisel and a hammer. Press on.

Rory,

Do you still paint pictures on cave walls?

This is where I learn't a lot There may even be an engraver near you to talk to so as to get pointers
http://www.engravingforum.com/
And
http://www.engraverscafe.com/forumdisplay.php?1-Hand-Engraving-Forum
Cheers Graham

Heck, my 3 year old grand niece can outrun me these days!

Tell ya what- you draw 'em and I'll engrave 'em, Rory!

Thanks for all the links. I can see where this won't be a walk in the park. I was looking for "the next big thing" to conquer, might as well be this. (Although I was getting psyched up to try my hand at making split cane fly rods next. Oh well!)

If a guy has steady hands, an artistic bent and time on his hands - this seems like a great thing to take up. Unfortunately the only thing I have is some time on my hands, so I'll be on the sidelines rooting for ya!

The easiest way to get what you want in the way of gun fanciness is to write a check. When I discovered to my chagrin a long time ago that one needs to have money in one's checking account before writing checks, I was forced to turn my hand toward doing it myself. What a wonderful journey it has been as a result.

That must be an Ulrich. Do you know which one? Is it marked?

Its not marked,but done in 1910, I think it might have been John,its in the right time frame.

Tried my hand in it,but kept hitting my thumb with the hammer. [img:center][/img] [img:center][/img]

Engraving takes receivers to a new level. Just put down the Marlin/Brophy book, good section on engravers of the time with lots of examples. Sounds like the Young's and some Ulrichs were primarily Winchester, but others too, Nimschke was of the Ballard era, said Conrad Ulrich was Marlin master engraver 1881-1909 +/-, most not signed. His son Alton George thereafter for quite a while. Experts could probably tell by style. That's one cool gun. 1895?

Did anyone else get the RIA flyer with the LePage guns on it... holy crap... that's engraving.



And not to be overly cynical as I could not scratch a straight line to save my life but I see and hear so much love and admiration for such engravings and their engravers but I struggle to see the beauty in many... the above has giant oak leaves, two cartoonish looking animals, and a couple of scrawny trees. Fox guns done after the mid teens are strikingly "blah" but the worst are probably the extremely cartoonish birds of Parkers and Ithacas. Their were some truly great engravers and engravings done at the turn of the century but I would recommend that one look at LC Smiths, Lefevers, and Colt shotguns.

This, to me, is what great engraving looks like

I dont know what the top animal is, but I will argue that the bottom one is a dog.

like you, I'm sure one is a dog----believe the other is a roe deer they mount that size rack in Germany

Jeff
Looks Like a ROE Deer.
Steve

Parker dog's are some of the best,but we do love their "flying turnips" [img:center][/img] [img:center][/img] [img:center][/img]

This is good engraving..........



But this is GREAT engraving..........





Savage99F358

That deer hasn't eaten in a while.

Who did the gold inlay work? Looks like Claus or Emil Willig possibly but not fine enough on the scrolling.

On the bottom of the receiver is says engraved by Floyd E. Warren in 1976....







This 99 is currently at the best checkering man in the business. He also will refinish the wood and bring out all the hidden grain. I'll post new pictures when I pick up the gun this spring.

Savage99F358

That is a beautiful gun!

Yours is for sure a beautiful gun. Good on you for increasing the beauty even more with the top notch woodwork. That gun will for sure qualify as a family heirloom. Congratulations.
JW

And this one ain't no .30-30 either

He has a REAL pretty 30-30.

I wonder why we see a lot of Germanic-style engraving (heavy handed, oak leaves, big bold animals, etc.) on rifles and more elegant tasteful engraving on quality shotguns? Perhaps it speaks to the aesthetics of gunners with different approaches to the game, or perhaps the end use of said guns, or...?

Big game animals on rifles,birds and bird dogs on shotguns makes perfect sense to me!! but what to do on those damned Drillings ???????

Nekkid womens?!

I saw (and almost bought) an Ithaca Grade 4E, in 16 gauge, the other day with an Elephant on one side and a Water Buffalo on the other. Seemed out of place to me but clearly factory work. Wish I had got it but it was at a pawn shop and they had to hold it for 30 days... when I went in on day 32, it was gone.

This seems to have that finer engraving often associated with shotguns:

I do like that, I am assuming it's not the one you have shot...

Gene - you are correct, I have not shot this one.

Steve
Very Nice
Whats On the Other Side? Same Pattern?
Steve

Steve - yes it is the same engraving on both sides.

The 4E is a beautiful gun. My uncle shot a 4E single barrel trap for many years.

There has been nothing on engraved 22's yet - here is what you could get from Sear's & Roebuck before WWI. The catalog page is from 1916, the company, Meriden , was started and owned by Sears & Roebuck. The engraving was probably contracted through the shop of William H. Gough who is said to have done work for several companies, including the high end A. J. Aubrey branded shotguns produced by Meriden; some sources say he had a few engravers working for him. I believe his shop also did Savage's engraving after Tue.

From the catalog page -

"This rifle is manufactured under patents granted Basil H. Savage, one of the world's foremost inventors of fire arms."

- IMO it was probably designed by A. W. Savage and just patented by Basil to avoid legal issue with Savage Arms because of a no competition agreement AWS had made with them.


The three bottom rifles would have cost $4.45 more than the top one in 1916.





[img]http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/GeneBB/f7f5554f-13bc-4434-b581-ca8028e7e2ec_zps6e699ddb.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/GeneBB/meridenmodel15sengraved019_zpsf80983ec.jpg[/img]

These did not hold there finish very well, it tended to flack off as certain years of Winchesters did.

The animals do look cartoonish, but you almost have to magnify them to see that - the upright rabbit is about 1/8" by 3/8" tall and the sitting squirrel is about 3/8" by 3/8".

Gene - lots of engraved .22 rifles to be proud of. Too bad they are in an obsolete caliber (i.e. no longer available)

here is the 4E with the Elephant and Water Buffalo... sorry for the truly terrible cell phone pictures.





Looked a little out of place on a 16gauge shotgun.

Was asked to post this, though I'm always happy to look at this. All day long, in fact. Though it's not factory, it's definitely some fine work.



Full Sized Picture

Beautiful engraving on that pistol,Rory. Heres a early marlin 1881 that the Ulrich's practiced on before the got onto the 1895 savages!

Beautiful rifle Don! I'm guessing .32/40 and my next guess is .38/55?

32-40

And the crowd goes wild....

Some of my brother's work:

This was done by an engraver from TN, I'm looking at him to do a receiver on my trap gun too.