Happy Friday Gun Art Pics

[ZeroGravitas]

These pics are from a custom engraving job by Ken Hurst for a guy in Colorado. Ken's been scratching steel since about 1960, and for a long time had an engraving company that did all of Colt's engraving work during the 60's and 70's. This gun started life as Baker field grade, had some rough storage, and then the artist took over. Ignore the market and enjoy.

[Flintlock Tom]

Those are gorgeous!
Is that done by hand? The goose, dog and duck look like laser etching.

[ZeroGravitas]

Everything by hand, or better put, by an artist's hand. I couldn't do that with a pencil and paper, let alone cut it into steel. I always liked the cattail's reflections in the water on the left sideplate.
The game scene engraving style is called bulino, done by pushing a tiny graver point into the steel, often under a special microscope, to shade the area with thousands of dots. Ken sent me these pics a year or so ago, and I rediscovered them today.
Before engraving the gun is annealed to make the steel soft. Then it's polished, engraved, and case hardened. These pics are before the re-hardening.

[martini]

That really is beautiful. I think my favorite is the the portrait of the retriever.

[Combat Controller]

These artists never cease to amaze me...

[Fivetoes]

Those are gorgeous!
Is that done by hand? The goose, dog and duck look like laser etching.

Laser etching has no soul. These are much better.