Congratulations Lee Griffiths

[John B.]

In the Product Reviews section of the October 2007 issue of the NRA American Rifleman magazine is an article about a series of John Wayne theme Ruger Vaquero revolvers.

These received the NRA Editor’s Choice award and are to be embellished by Baron Technology for Talo Wholesalers using artwork designed by Lee R. Griffiths, Vice President of the Firearms Engravers Guild of America.
Lee is a major artist and I am sure he has lifted these decorated firearms up to a new, higher level.

Congratulations to Lee on another breakthrough for the employment of the artistry of engravers.

Best regards, John B.

 

[dclevinger]

Outstanding! Congratulations Lee.
David

 

[Sam]

Big congrats, Lee!! That's quite an honor!

And to think I knew you when you were an Idaho farm boy.

 

[Weldon47]

Kudos!!

Weldon

 

[Tira]

Huzzah! Huzzah! And very cool too! Congratulations!

 

[Mike Bissell]

Congratulations Lee

Mike

 

[david bain]

congratlations Lee

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Way to go Lee................Do I sense another story for the Engraver!!!!!

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Joe]

I always love your work, Lee. Congrats.

 

[Don Cowles]

 

[Rick Eaton]

Lee,
Congratulations way to go.
Rick

 

[Ron Smith]

That strikes my curiosity button Lee. I tried to do something like that with them years ago, but it never materialized, I think because they didn't have the process down fine enough or something. The lines woud bleed together due to the etching process.They couldn't do lines too close together then for technical reasons. Is that the way they are going to reproduce your art work, or will it be with a laser? Hope you get royalties for that, but it will probably be a lump sum I am guessing, which is alright if it is enough. It is surprising how much they are able to get for mass producing something and the public is not aware, but hope it works out for you and I wish you the very best. Congratulations!!.....I know it will be great......hope to see some pictures.....Ron S

 

[pilkguns]

Thats pretty cool and great to see someone with real talent like Lee doing the designing. It;s ironic that this John Wayne commerative revolver is mentioned in the same issue that has a John Wayne commerative Model 92 with a pathetic scroll design on the front cover. Compare that with the juxtaposing of another John Wayne commerative rifle this time a 73 on page 3 with it's much more aesticatically appealing as well as more historically correct scroll design.

But yeah Ron, I think the technology has increased a great deal in recent years. I remember doing some design work for Baron about 15 years ago and really have to "dumb down" the design to get a proper reproduction in the samples.

 

[Lee]

The engraving will be reproduced by laser which is getting better all the time. They asked me to design and cut a prototype. The design for the edition is based on my original but some changes were made. I haven't seen a laser cut edition. Bob Coyle at TALO was very good to work with.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

The laser engraving is indeed getting better all the time.

I went to a hunting show here in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago and there were a few double rifles on display. All had laser engraving from simple scroll work to hunting scenes in 3D relief work. Some of it (not all) was actually very well done and the young guys were slobbering all over it.

Why?.........because it was within their price bracket that they could see as obtainable.

It was pretty impressive considering that only a handful of years ago that type of thing looked awful. In the area of computer generated CNC and Laser it's getting a lot better very quickly as the technology advances. Especially in the area of 3D work.

Start marrying the technology of the computer expert with the skill of a talented designer that understands the lines and has empathy with guns such as Lee, then the whole process will really start going forward a lot faster.

Cheers
Andrew