One of my long term goals

These are pics of my great grandfathers old shotgun. It is an Iver Johnson. It used to have a nickel plate but it is all but missing and has been replaced by rust. Not my doing I assure you. It is safe to shoot with low brass shells. There is only some minor pitting inside the barrell and I have shot it. I checked with the Iver johnson company and they told me this was the first gun with the hammer in the center of the frame. I took it to a few gun shows and was told there is not much value on any old single barrell break down shotgun.
For this reason I have decided to repair the stock and refinish it and one day when I feel confident enough (if I live that long ) engrave it as a family heirloom. I have one child and six adopted children and none of them cares for guns so I don't know what will happen to it but I am hoping someone will want it when it is engraved. I plan to put the family crest on it. Like I said, Long term goal. Mack

Sorry, here are the pics.

Mack,
Funny, I am doing the same thing. This is my Iver Johnson Champion. It belonged to my uncle's grandfather. It was my first gun project when I was 11 years old. I found it in the floor joists of my uncle's basement, all rusted and the wood dented. He let me have it. I sanded all the rust off and cold blued it, steamed the dents out of the stock, fitted it with a recoil pad, and varnished the wood. Used it thru grade and high school and college. That was over 50 years ago and I recently decided I would re-do it.


The receiver was originally color case hardened, but I figured after all the sanding on it most of that layer would be gone. This was a test with a HSS graver to see if it would cut. It did OK and the line will be part of my border later on.


I just finished re-bluing the barrel two weeks ago and it has been hanging in the shop covered with grease while it seasoned a bit.


This is my pattern for a panel on each side. I will work my borders and scrolls into it. I may try to do the quail as inlays, depending on my mood and confidence when I get that far. Otherwise, I will probably leave them off.


This is my first practice plate, not finished yet. Wanted to practice pattern transfer and some other things. There is a lot of piddling on it, as I tried 5 different graver points to see how they cut. I purposely left the curl in the lower right corner for you to see how to get it out of the way. I cut it with a #0 knife graver pushed with a hammer instead of by hand. There are also some hand-chased shadings that I won't know what they look like until I finish and wash the transfer ink off. Then I will try to do some touch-up and use lessons learned to do another. This one is 2X actual size.
Gimme some help here folks.......I'm flapping in the breeze.


Dave

Mack you are advancing by leaps and bounds, keep going. Having a goal like this is a good idea.

Jim

long term goal

Hiya Mack.
This looks like a great project to look forward to. I'm sure when you get round to it, it will be something to treasure, Somthing to pass down, instead of being hidden away somwhere. I think I need somthing like it, to concentrate on, to take pride in, instead of practice plate after practice plate. don't get me wrong; I need the practice and will continue with it, but I think a challenge now and then can't be a bad thing. regards Tony

Catnip, there is nothing better than the challenge, if you have the courage to face it, the determination to conquer it, and the time required to do that.............and no one knows about the last one.

Rock on!

Ron S

Catnip

Try this for your next practice plate:

Make it about 1" wide and about 3/4" shorter than the circumference of your wife's wrist. If it comes out nice, form it into a bracelet (tape over the engraving and use a mallet to form it around a baseball bat if nothing else). Copper is good for practice (lacquer it before you bend it to keep it from going green). If you get good enough silver's not too expensive.