Classic design bits

[KCSteve]

In Micheal's thread asking for help on the 1851 Colt design Roger posted this:

Michael,

Here are some pics that will show how Gustave Young designed the area you are considering . Most of these are octagon barrels not round like your dragoon but I think you will get some ideas from them. There is a set of Dragoons pictured with what Colt collectors call "donut scroll." I never cared for it and it was only used on a small number of guns.

When you look at the work on these guns you may wonder "what's the big deal about the engraving on antique Colts. I see better scroll every day on the forum." Collectors are crazy for this because of its antiquity and they don't compare it with today's work. Anyway the designs are good for beginners to learn from.

I hope this helps,

Roger

Roger

You'll have to go over to the original thread to see the pictures but they're quite nice. I especially like the way they worked the dog heads into the scrolls.

But Roger's point is a good one. When I went to the Dazzling Pistols display at the Eiteljorg Museum I was pleased to think that I could do a reasonable job of copying some of those historic guns.

Ok, I'm working with great magnification - up to and including my microscope, I've got all the light I want, I've got sharpening jigs, powered gravers, etc. so I'm pretty sure I can replicate work that was done with natural light / lamp light, hand push / hammer & chisel with hand sharpened gravers back 100 years ago or more.

Not nearly as fast as the guys who were cranking it out then, but eventually.

So yes, as Roger said, the work from those days doesn't compare to the work being done these days (at least the good work), but that's because the good guys today are really good, not because the old work was in any way bad.

 

[MICHAEL]

Hey Steve. Rogers right. I have friends that I show the engravings of lovenberg or francollini and they could care less but show them some Nimschke and they start drooling. I was studying the first 100 pages of Dennis Adlers Colt book today and there were alot of pictures with donut scroll (which I had no idea what that was until Roger posted his thread, thanks) and the animal heads poking out of scroll in case someone wants to see more of it. It was nice meeting you at the engrave-in by the way. I finally know the face behind the camera!

 

[monk]

i dunno, if you cant look at the work of nimschke and "feel something", i think something's wrong with ya ! just my opinion, not tryin to start a war here.

 

[Peter E]

Also, what I find amazing about Nimschke was the sheer number of guns he engraved. I remember doing some crude calculations, and it was astounding to consider how many guns he engraved during the number of years he worked.

The R.L. Wilson book on Nimschke is one of my favorites.

 

[Roger Bleile]

Also, what I find amazing about Nimschke was the sheer number of guns he engraved.

If you count all the counterfeit guns he did't engrave he must have done a million!

 

[KCSteve]

Yeah, that's part of my point - those guys were doing 'just' production work on most of these guns and they're still that cool!

These days we not only stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us, we get there on escalators.

It would be interesting to see a modern reproduction of one of the classic designs done with modern tools. Keep the design but do it to modern standards. Be a great thing to have casts of for study.

Also be interesting to see just how long it would take a good modern engraver using modern tools to do the job. Would, say, Scott Pilkington be able to do a Nimschke copy in less time or would the modern nit-pickiness make him slower?

(Not to pick on you Scott, just using you as an example of a good modern firearms engraver)