Gun Art

Whatever happened to Holland & Holland and Purdy? Do they still exist? Given the laws and attitudes in UK?

Ok for some but I'd rather see holster wear.

I love the stuff where the case colors are left to show under the engraving...

Too much of it seems to be in a style an opera designer I once worked with called "Circus Wagon Baroque".

Stuart

If you look closely, particularly at the H&H shotgun with the spot case-coloring, I think you'll see that the gun was engraved first, and then colored.

It looks like they used a torch and cyanide salts, rather than a bath. It's very nice.

Yeah. They didn't know when to stop. I'd be afraid to shoot some of them, with all of that deep, German-style engraving.

I really like the etching of the boars and other animals.

I would expect that engraving a case-hardened piece of steel would be difficult, at best.

Well, color case-hardening is decorative and not often really a serious hardening job. It typically doesn't have any significant effect on surface hardness. The depth of carbon penetration with most methods rarely is more than a few millionths to tens of millionths of an inch. It often isn't even quenched.

The old Stevens Favorite and Crackshot receivers were offered with a very nice (for mass production) color case hardening job at one time, and that was a bit thicker, but still only less than one tenth -- not enough to mean much.

Guns rendered useless for the most part.

I like guns that are likely to be used or carried.

Personal preference. The art part for me comes in the construction and design.

Different strokes for different folks.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller