Ed Westerly
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Here's a Ruger I treated to full coverage flare cut American scroll, with relieved and stippled backgrounds, and gold wire inlay.
Last edited:
More Flare Cutting
- Thread starter Ed Westerly
- Start date
eastslope
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Ooo Ooo that is cool! More pictures please. Seth
Ed Westerly
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
O.K., you asked for it, so here they are!Keith
Elite Cafe Member
I wanted to see more too thanks for posting the extra pics. neat flare cutting.
Doc Mark
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Man, I really like this Flare Cutting effect! Which model Ruger is this and how hard was it to engrave? Which brings up another question. How do you guys engrave the hardened hammers? I'm currently doing a replica Colt 1851, cap and ball pistol. I've had no trouble cutting any part of the gun except for the hammer. On the hammer, all I could do was lightly scratch the surface and break engraver tips! Do you anneal the hardened metals and then re-temper them after engraving?
Ed Westerly
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Thanks for the replies, guys. Doc Mark, this is a Ruger Vaquero (old model, full size. The one they don't make anymore). It started life as a blued, "case hardened" gun with the faugh ivory grips you see on it. Now, how do you engrave hardened hammers, etc? Well, the Ruger's hammer wasn't that much harder than the gun, which was slightly unfun on the barrel and cylinder, especially when inlaying the gold. I had been told that Ruger loading gates were unengravable due to hardness, but it wasn't by a long shot. When a part is really hard, I use a rotary tool, the name of which escapes me, but which I got from GRS. Then I go back over the work with carbide gravers, taking light cuts and resharpening a lot! I never anneal and reharden, as I am very leary of making an unsafe part, which could be a disaster!
Chapi
Elite Cafe Member
What a beautiful gun! Thanks for the tips on engraving hardened parts too!
Ed Westerly
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
You're welcome. Show all your friends!
Tira
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Beautiful Bruce - thanks for posting the pictures.
bronc
Elite Cafe Member
Beautiful work!
Ed Westerly
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Thank you, glad you liked it. (I could do yours if you'd like! 
)
)
Roger Bleile
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Bruce (and everybody else), Only the stainless steel loading gates are super hard. The SS cylinders are also very hard but you can engrave them if you resharpen a cobalt or carbide graver a few times on each facet. Unless annealed, the SS loading gates can only be scratched. I have had to anneal the loading gate on every SS Vaquero I have engraved but I haven't done many. Jeff Flannery has engraved over 125 SS Vaqueros and he told me he had to anneal every one. In fact Jeff anneals the ones I do as I don't have a furnace. I tried doing it with a torch but the part cools too quickly and is still rock hard.
Roger
Ed Westerly
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Roger,
Thanks for the info. I've engraved about five or six Ruger Vaqueros in SS, but now that I think of it, I've never done the loading gate on any of them. They weren't full coverage. I will salt it away as something I'll need to remember some day!
Thanks for the info. I've engraved about five or six Ruger Vaqueros in SS, but now that I think of it, I've never done the loading gate on any of them. They weren't full coverage. I will salt it away as something I'll need to remember some day!
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