Who engraved this?

[sam]

Anyone have any idea who did the McKenzie style of engraving on this gun? I'm pretty certain it's not McKenzie's work. A friend sent me these photos and is trying to figure out who engraved it.

 

[mitch]

I'd agree it's not actually Lynton's, but it's one of the better impressions I've seen over the years. Any more info on the provenance? I suppose a signature search came up empty?

I wonder what's up with the cat? It kinda looks like an inlay was abandoned...

 

[JJ Roberts]

What's with the cat on the right side of the pistol? J.J.

 

[BrianPowley]

Since someone mentioned Bill Gamradt, it wouldn't take much to get a hold of him and ask.
He's still in FEGA last I remembered.

 

[mitch]

i'm just bumping this in case somebody hasn't seen it and has something to add..

 

[Mike Dubber]

It's a very nice interpretation of Lynton's style.

The crosshatch layout used to drawn in the leopard is interesting - that's exactly the way Frank Hendricks suggested that an image could be accurately reduced/repeated during one of his seminar discussions. That is to cross-hatch the original image, reduce the square crosshatching on the metal surface in a much smaller pattern, then draw the image using the reference intersections.

In any case, the engraver is not a beginner.

 

[SamW]

I remember that Mike. It is a very old technique.

 

[John B.]

I remember that Mike. It is a very old technique.

As Sam says, an old technique and often used before computers and printers.
I was taught to do it in junior art classes by using fade out graph paper in two different square sizes.
Just follow the number of squares where the original art touches the squares you lay over it. Trace if you want.
Duplicate where it touches on the same number and position of squares on your larger/smaller graph paper.
This way you can reduce or enlarge your original artwork and keep it in scale.

 

[mitch]

yeah, John, me too. I learned it in a shop class in 7th grade, maybe reducing a wood carving design or leather pattern? in fact, i kinda remember my older brother learning it in a shop class and showing me- so i probably picked it up in elementary school. that was almost 50 yrs ago and i'm sure the technique was a few thousand years old when i was a kid.

do they even have shop classes anymore?

 

[DKanger]

do they even have shop classes anymore?

Not many!! Somewhere along the line, educators decided it was better to have a college education instead of a technical one. Now we have 10,000's of grads with massive student loans working minimum wage jobs in the food service industry and still living with their parents well into their 20's and 30's; and, they think the government will forgive those loans, while we taxpayers subsidize them.

 

[Mike Dubber]

Yes, very sad to see that the trades are being outsourced while students are channeled into a college based curriculum. I taught high school fine arts and architectural drafting for ten years before I walked away from that - even in the late 60's I recognized that the fine arts and shop classes were becoming a general dumping ground for the students who couldn't cut the college agenda.

 

[AllenClapp]

The demise of shop classes and drafting classes is sad. When I was in high school, a bunch of my male and female classmates made a pact. If the girls would take shop or drafting (most took shop), we boys would take typing or home ec. We are all now in our late 70s and some of our best stories at class reunions have come out of those decisions. One of the girls who took shop married a guy who grew up in an apartment in the Bronx. It was years before she let him do more than change a light bulb for fear that he would get hurt. I would think that the kids today would go for classes in SketchUp or some of the other reasonably priced 3-D design software for the mechanically inclined or Affinity Designer for the more artistic. Not only could they play with it on their own computers but it would become a set of useful tools for later life.

 

[JJ Roberts]

We had a print shop in my high school one letter press and one single color offset press I took up printing and did it in the Navy and worked in the printing trade for 50 years was never with out a job. J.J.

 

[Roger Bleile]

My guess on the engraving would be Bill Gamradt, Harry Limings, or the late J. Ron French. Since the gun is unfinished, it could be an unfinished piece by French.

 

[Dave London]

Yep I have screaming in to the wind for over 40 /years about the need for shop classes in high schools. Now a few educators are coming to realize college is not necessary. We have a local school that specialized in teaching trades, there is hope.
And the three Rs

 

[mitch]

Like many of us, I could go on and on about shop classes and the state of education in general, but I do have one story actually related to engraving.

In 7th grade I had a shop class that was divided into three separate segments-
-small engines (still comes in handy to occasionally work on my lawnmower);
-basic electronics (built a simple motor & transformer, and impressed the class with the excellent ones my Dad made when he was a kid);
-and mechanical drawing, which was a basic drafting course. About 20 yrs ago I met a woman at a friend's engagement party, and thru the usual "So where are you from/went to school?" chitchat it turned out her Dad was the teacher. I told her I still use those skills for drawing patterns of guns, knives, etc., along with various parts for machining and other things. When I saw her later at the wedding she said her Dad was thrilled to hear that. Thanks again, Mr. Logan!

 

[thughes]

That's way cool Mitch!

 

[dcurrie911]

I made a Bowie knife with a 10” blade and blued a rifle barrel in my High School shop class. Yep, they actually had a hot blue tank in the class shop.