engraving

But if they just said engraved then they were truthful. Not trying to cheat you or anything. Quite a few companies are offering this type of engraving these days and they do a good job of it. It is not the true hand and chisel type engraving but it is a newer type of engraving that is still engraving. Probably if it was done by hand with hammer and chisel it would have cost you 4 or 5 times the $700 it cost. So if you are happy with it, that is all that matters. There is one type of engraving that I don't like. It is simply etched in using acid, no cutting at all. S&W had a series of guns a while back that were acid etched and they really looked cheap. You could run your finger over the scene and not feel the engraving at all as it was just etched in with acid.

Engraving these days is much different from the engraving done a hundred years ago. Very little is done by hand any more. If you look at the old Winchester frame scenes from 100 years ago you will see they are pretty much all the same. Winchester had 6 main themes to engrave on the guns. They also used a template with acid to etch the scene on the gun. Then they would go in by hand and cut over the scene etching. So it is hand engraved but done using a template. Some engravers were artists in every sense of the word. They were well known and their engraved guns are very high priced these days. But they were true artists and most of their engraving is done free hand not using a template of any kind. Those guys were artists, not just engravers.

Today to be able to put out a series of 50 or 100 guns they pretty much have to use a machine. We were approached by a company recently that used CNC machines to do their engraving. They use a program in a cnc machine and wham bam in a few minutes they have the 1911 slide "engraved". There is nothing wrong with that. To do full hand engraving on a gun takes months and months and is very expensive. A friend had a Winchester frame and barrel full hand engraved a while back and it took 3 years and cost $8000. He loves it and as long as he is happy then that is all that matters.
Our engraving is similar to the CNC type engraving except I do it pretty much by hand. I use a template using acid to etch the design into the piece of metal, a cylinder or 1911 slide or whatever. Then I use an electric hand engraver that goes back in and traces the design. So yes it is hand engraved but it is not the old original hand engraving with hammer and chisel. I can full engrave a gun like a couple of #5s shown here in about 2 to 3 weeks. But if I had to do it with a hammer and chisel (which I am not talented enough to do) it would take me several months to do the same engraving. And cost about 4 to 5 times as much.


I have to measure each part of the gun and then draw up a template with the design the customer wants and send it to my template folks. They do the vinyl template and get it back to me in a few weeks. That is what is used to put the design on the gun using acid that I can go back in and trace over with the cutting tool. Quite often I get a customer that wants a full scene and that takes a lot longer. I am doing a scene with a bear on a ledge looking down at an elk. I first put the mountains and trees in, then put the bear on a rock and then put one or two elk down in front of the bear. Each scene has to be measured so I know how much room I have to work with. It is time consuming but it gives the customer what he wants and doesn't cost him a fortune. These gun parts are mostly finished with a bit more work to do in polishing and touching up a part or two. And each piece except the last one are raw metal in the white.

Our engraving is cut in deep enough so it will never wear out and will be there the life of the gun. I can do the full engraving the customer wants for less than $1000, usually around $800. The same engraving with hammer and chisel would take several months and cost $4000 or a bit more. This way the average shooter can have a full engraved gun designed by himself for a reasonable price and reasonable length of time.

EXPECT HAND ENGRAVING FOR $700!?!!??

here it is, I think! never posted a pic.