Example of how not to do it.

[oniemarc]

I´m honestly not surprised at all.. I see this even in hand engraving groups on facebook and other places where guns are hand engraved.

Let me first say that I have nothing against guns and don't want to start a gun discussion, but in most countries here in Europe we have very different laws, thinking and approach to guns in general. Especially hand guns..

Anyway I see very often that whatever scratches is done on a gun, either it is laser ot hand scratches and especially in USA some people (please not some people) absolutely love it, and I often think that it´s more because they see it on a gun and get sort of blinded.. Some kind of gun fetish. I´m sure there are Europeans liking it too, but here it´s more rare to own a hand gun..

If they would have seen the same engraving, either laser or hand engraving on lets say a phone cover, a tool or whatever, they would not have paid attention at all. But on a gun, everything is beautiful..

Lasers are here to stay, and will only get better and better.. so there will always be some people making lemon juice and make a good business on it as long as some people think whatever on a gun is beautiful.

The same is happening in all engraving at this point. Tools, jewelry, knives and whatever else is engraved. I truly think that part of the problem is, that some engravers(laser or hand) feel that they are good enough, blind to their own mistakes. Family and friends telling them, that what they are making is awesome. The general public...doesn't know what to look for. So these engravers will start selling way too early in my opinion and for prices that are unreal. Making the general public think that better quality(if they even notice the difference) is even more expensive. They are simply opting for the cheaper and readily available product.

 

[DaveAtWeirs]

I know it's probably bad of me to say but it makes me feel much much better about my designs and scrollwork. Whats that saying about "there's always someone else confidently doing it wrong"?

Out of curiosity how much is the engraving adding to the price? (I'm in Ireland and handguns are banned for the general public here so I've no idea how much they are generally)

 

[Goldjockey]

Doesn’t look as if the laser cut scroll had any effect on the value. If anything, the gun complete with optic sold at well under the market price for an unembellished Beretta Model 87. Hard to say, but it’s possible the poorly done embellishment was a net negative. https://truegunvalue.com/pistol/beretta-87/price-historical-value/used/1#usedItems

 

[Old Gunsmith]

All of these appear to be laser cut designs. The computer controlled laser does not handle shading or curved surfaces well. Usually some hand scratches are added especially where the shading is supposed to be. Thus they can call it hand engraved. I have attempted to fix some of these in the past and they did not turn out half bad if the hand scratched part is not too deep. Also the cheaper lasers can not handle fine detail or complex designs do to a lower resolution than the more expensive lasers.

If you go to many gun shows you will see tons of this stuff especially since cheap laser engravers have appeared. It sells really well since it is cheaper than the true hand engraving that we do.

 

[Grayson]

It's WONDERFUL that you are finally posting some photos of work that does not make me jealous!

 

[azarel444]

Hard to tell without my readers but looks like it was possibly done with a dremel?…

Ive done lots of dremel engraving and can do it very clean. This definitely looks like someone who used a dremel and hasnt gotten very good with it yet but none of that even matters with how terrible the artwork is. Id be furious if someone sent this back to me.

 

[mtlctr]

That is so sad. And what is worse, they all have lots of bids, so the guy will be encouraged to trash more good guns.

yep sad, trashed no. Won’t hinder the operation any, the saving grace is none of these guns are “ so called” collectors items. seen This before quite a few times a lot on muzzleloaders, & bolt action battle rifles, we call it Bubbacizing.

 

[mtlctr]

It's WONDERFUL that you are finally posting some photos of work that does not make me jealous!

;>)

 

[mtlctr]

I´m honestly not surprised at all.. I see this even in hand engraving groups on facebook and other places where guns are hand engraved.

Let me first say that I have nothing against guns and don't want to start a gun discussion, but in most countries here in Europe we have very different laws, thinking and approach to guns in general. Especially hand guns..

Anyway I see very often that whatever scratches is done on a gun, either it is laser ot hand scratches and especially in USA some people (please not some people) absolutely love it, and I often think that it´s more because they see it on a gun and get sort of blinded.. Some kind of gun fetish. I´m sure there are Europeans liking it too, but here it´s more rare to own a hand gun..

If they would have seen the same engraving, either laser or hand engraving on lets say a phone cover, a tool or whatever, they would not have paid attention at all. But on a gun, everything is beautiful..

Lasers are here to stay, and will only get better and better.. so there will always be some people making lemon juice and make a good business on it as long as some people think whatever on a gun is beautiful.

I have a few firearms, no safe queens, & none of em engraved. For me they are tools to be used.

 

[gtsport]

If you look at the lettering, you can see that it is [poorly] hand cut, I think this is all just very badly hand engraved. A laser with a poor design looks like crap, but this looks like hand engraved crap.

 

[mtlctr]

If you look at the lettering, you can see that it is [poorly] hand cut, I think this is all just very badly hand engraved. A laser with a poor design looks like crap, but this looks like hand engraved crap.

Bubbacized.