I have never had engraving done on a rifle, and I have what I think is a simple question...do you do the engraving before or after the blueing/case coloring?

I am just ignorant of the procedure.

Larry:

The engraving is normally done before the part is casehardened or blued. If a major part is being engraved, most gunsmiths prefer to have the part engraved after all work except metal finishing is done. This is so that they don't have to worry about damaging the engraving while fitting parts. However, the engraving can be done earlier, it just requires more time for the gunsmith to fit the part.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Dave, thanks! It won't be much, just the grip cap and butt plate, but I didn't want to screw it up, looks wise.

Thanks again.

OK, fellas, let me change the question just a bit....how about when a gripcap is being inlayed? Gold inlay..... before or after (rust) bluing? Does this change if caustic bluing?

TIA


MKane160

I haven't had much gold inlay work done, but the gunsmith, Duane Wiebe, and the engraver, ex-Purdy engraver Charles Lee both said to do the inlay before bluing, and to hot-blue the gun instead of rust-blue. Apparently rust-blue will attack the gold and make it appear washed out or tarnished.

Dave

you can rust blue parts with gold inlays with no problems. What you have to do is card the inlaid parts by hand and not on the wire wheel. I use a piece of Scotchbrite pad under running hot water in the sonk when carding inlaid pieces.

I would like to say for the record that I have no first-hand knowledge of the damage that can be caused by the rotating wire wheel when carding inlaid pieces. The man who taught me how to do it told me of his mistakes, and I took him at his word. Margins are WAAAAAAY too thin in the custom gun business to pay for gold inlays you screwed up.