The Trouble with engravers...

Artemiss

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
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474
Location
South West England
Here's a small feature written by my good friend and Westley Richards engraver, Peter Spode....

Makes me smile every time I read it... so thought you guys might enjoy too. :)

There is a famous pub in the old gun quarter called ‘The Gunmakers Arms ‘ which was frequented by many who worked in the Birmingham gun trade. There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about an engraver working in a local gunmakers many years ago who apparently, was very fond of a little liquid refreshment at lunchtime at this public house. During the morning , he had been working on two guns; one a shotgun and the other a double rifle. Mistakenly he had engraved elephants on the shotgun and pheasants on the rifle. After lunch, he staggered back to work and his error was pointed out to him and he was told in no uncertain terms to go and ‘ sort it out’ before the day was over. He was not pleased! At the end of the day, he had just engraved a pair of wings on the elephant and a small trunk on the pheasant……….

It couldn’t happen today…..could it ?




Here's the original thread...

http://www.theexplora.com/the-trouble-with-engravers/
 

atexascowboy2011

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Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
997
Many moons ago in a South Texas honkytonk, I ran into an old friend of mine. We proceeded to have a "couple" of drinks, after which he ordered a custom pair of spurs,initials and all. Not bothering to find pen and paper besides being extremely smart, I committed the order to memory.
After designing the spurs with 2 & 1/2" tall initials and a 4" rowel, I then spent a couple of hundred hours forging and piercing these spurs.
Upon completion I presented them to their new owner who stated, " They're beautiful , BUT ! , those are not my initials ".
So, in regards to your question, NO ! ,it can NEVER EVER happen in my shop, again !

(Background noise of someone furiously knocking on wood).
 

DakotaDocMartin

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Oct 15, 2007
Messages
1,835
Location
Grand Forks, ND
I like this background image they used on their engraving page:



And, the raised sculpting of the birds:

 
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mitch

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Jul 23, 2007
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2,635
i have not heard of the trunk being put on the pheasant, but years ago did hear the tale about the elephant being accidentally engraved on some part of a shotgun. when the boss pointed out the error, the engraver cut a pair of wings on the errant pachyderm. maybe Marcus or Phil knows if any of this is true?
 

Roger Bleile

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Oct 4, 2007
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2,988
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Northern Kentucky
It would be nice if Peter Spode, Shawn Banks, Vince Crowley, John Barratt and Rashid Al Hadi at Westley Richards could join us here in the Engravers Cafe'.
 

phil

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Oct 21, 2007
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224
Location
England
Hi Jo. I pass that pub every day. Its still there, just outside of the jewellery quarter. Well done with Westley Richards.
 

atexascowboy2011

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
997
Eugene
When you pierce around specific letters, leaving holes sometimes 1/2" × 3/4", there IS no repairing !
Besides the fact that I will NOT put flawed work out there !
 

KCSteve

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Jun 19, 2007
Messages
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Location
Kansas City, MO
Obviously you just have to make more friends until you have one with the right initials and the right taste in spurs.
 

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