MICHAEL
Elite Cafe Member
Please feel free to critique the whole shootin match!! Grips, finish/prep, engraving, case colors, nitre blue, but not the action work (LOL), I'm still working in that area.
Wow!!...how many hours did it take to engrave the whole gun?
I usually cut running wheat border cuts... the last ones going out to the edge of the leaves... with a 120 getting deeper til it hits main cuts.
Pretty good.... I think you're about ready to move on to something more challenging.
I did. I just came off a 2 week vacation. Aside from moving my new lathe into the basement, I spent every day engraving a Ruger New Vaquero. I really learned how to properly dub my graver. Got to where I didn't fracture my graver or have to resharpen on the flats. On recoil shields and cylinder was resharpening every 5-15 mins. Did the barrel last and had to resharpen 2x max when I first started it and finished the barrel without resharpening. The microscope helped more than I have words for, especially seeing micro fractures on the point. Eliminating all vibration helped a lot also. I engraved these pistols earlier in the year. Did the finish during my vacation also. The purple in the finish should morph into a blue black over the next few weeks. The case colors were very vibrant with epoxy and did not match. Also masked the engraving so I stripped the epoxy and applied oil. Made both a more subdued color and engraving stands out better.
the fotos reveal nothing terrible to my eye. matter of fact, i think it's a right nice looker. what are the grips made of ?