THE ACCURATE RELOADING ENGRAVING FORUM

Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Engravings from an uncle
 Login/Join
 
one of us
posted




Here’s a couple examples of some work my uncle did back in the 70’s. It was all with home made gravers while practicing. He did IMO some very nice work.


Shoot straight, shoot often.
Matt
 
Posts: 1168 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 19 July 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post


One more, maybe a bit clearer. My uncle passed away a couple years ago and I always considered him quite the craftsman. He built a lot of muzzleloaders from scratch, rifles barrels for them, made locks, stocks, etc... I just recently got these plates from a friend of his widow and thought I’d share. He was a tool and die machinist by trade and pretty skilled all-around.


Shoot straight, shoot often.
Matt
 
Posts: 1168 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 19 July 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
Matt,

I didn't see his name mentioned. It may be important to a collector in the future.

I have tried to get people interested in engraving. The trick is learning how to sharpen the engraving tool with the correct angles.

Just my thoughts,

Les Brooks
 
Posts: 965 | Location: Texas | Registered: 19 May 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
Thomas A. Cloutier, lived in Faribault, WI. I always looked up to him as a guy that could make just about anything. One of my favorite firearms is an old English double muzzleloading rifle he restored. From taking the whole thing apart to reboring/rifling the bores to the same # of lands/grooves and pitch to regulation and stock repairs... Beautiful large caliber double gun that shoots a patched roundball that weighs close to 700 grains with 120gr of DuPont black. Killed a deer with it a couple years ago.

I don't think he engraved many guns other than some small embellishments on his own stuff. He did all of this stuff as a hobby, but did it pretty well IMO.

Not sure why, but everytime I post a pic off my IPAD from Tinypic, they turh out upside down..


Shoot straight, shoot often.
Matt
 
Posts: 1168 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 19 July 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
One of Us
posted Hide Post
Nice work..
The 2 birds perched on a limb on the bottom on the action engraving is a scene from James Meeks book 'The Art of Engraving'.
That book was about the first 'how-to' gun engraving book on the market and came out in the late 60's or early 70's IIRC.
Mr Meeks would have been flattered by the skills of your uncle. Very nicely done.

I would suggest contacting the FEGA / Historian and adding his name, informtion and the pics of his work to their historical records.
There are still many unkn but very talented engravers that worked and should have their names preserved.
I've added a couple myself over the years.

http://www.fega.com/Officers/Officers.asp
 
Posts: 548 | Registered: 08 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
Matt,

That work is beautiful! Especially if he engraved it all upside-down like that. Just kidding. But really, amazing work. I've seen pro's whose engraved animals don't look nearly that good.
 
Posts: 1717 | Location: Maryland | Registered: 17 January 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
I bought Meeks book on engraving when it first came out from Brownell's. I see several scrolls from his examples in the pictures. That book had influence on lots of people wanting to learn to engrave. I made a sharpening tool like Meeks used, but found it hard to use with numbers to refer back on resharpening. In the late '80's I had to restock a shotgun with extra barrels. I had to make the forearm metal to fit the receiver. This shotgun had some nice engraving and I needed to match the engraving of the original gun. So I decided to learn how to do basic engraving. The picture below shows the improved tool for sharpening engravers which I made at that time. That was the best way to repeat the angles with know angles.

I wrote an article for the Engravers Guild Mag about 10 yrs ago. You can find the article by searching on the internet. It is a complete article showing how to make this tool.

 
Posts: 965 | Location: Texas | Registered: 19 May 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
I remember an old color photo of that deer picture that he copied for that engraving. Don't know where that ended up. His engraving tools and vise were given to a very good friend of his who unfortunately became quite ill only two years after my uncle passed away. He set a few of these things aside for his wife to give to me as he just passed away a little over a year ago and she sent them to me recently. Unfortunately I didn't receive any of the tools. She did send me the round ball mould for that double rifle mzzldr though.


Shoot straight, shoot often.
Matt
 
Posts: 1168 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 19 July 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
Out of curiosity as you can see they have sat around for awhile and have a bit of corrosion, is there anything I can do to clean them up a bit without washing out or muting any detail? I've just scrubbed them with a cloth and oil for now and will leave them as is rather than ruin them.


Shoot straight, shoot often.
Matt
 
Posts: 1168 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 19 July 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
use a mild rust remover and toothbrush, nothing abrasive. Coke might be a good place to start. Not overnight, you will frost the entire surface.


Russ Gould - Whitworth Arms LLC
BigfiveHQ.com, Large Calibers and African Safaris
Doublegunhq.com, Fine English, American and German Double Rifles and Shotguns
VH2Q.com, Varmint Rifles and Gear
 
Posts: 2926 | Location: Texas | Registered: 07 June 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
Evaporust.

Dave
 
Posts: 2086 | Location: Seattle Washington, USA | Registered: 19 January 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
one of us
posted Hide Post
Matt, wonderful heirlooms. Your uncle had a gift.


There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.
– John Green, author
 
Posts: 16287 | Location: Sweetwater, TX | Registered: 03 June 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 


Copyright December 1997-2023 Accuratereloading.com


Visit our on-line store for AR Memorabilia