Photos of my latest Engraved Colt Single Action Army Revolver

[leschowe]

Hi Everyone,
I would like to post a pointer to some very high resolution photos of my latest Engraved Colt Single Action Army Revolver. All of the finish work was completed by Doug Turnbull MFG. , and the ivory grips were installed by Jim Aliamo of Nutmeg Sports.

http://www.engravingtransfers.com/les_schowe_colt_45_saa_2.html

Les

 

[GTJC460]

What's it run to have that type of finishing done by Turnbull?

 

[leschowe]

Hi Bert,
Color Case Hardening for frame, hammer and loading gate, charcoal blue, nitre blue small parts, full re-assembly of gun including timing of the bolt (don't want to put the barrel back after bluing, nor do I want the liability of assembly of a revolver), and FedEx over night shipping back to me w/signature: $618.00. Good price for a fantastic job!!! Turnbull's Charcoal bluing is just beautiful!

Les

 

[Dave London]

Super job Les, going a lot deeper on this one, looks like a perfect transition between the barrel and ejector shroud gold inlay , And i know how easy that is Take care and stop by next time you are in town Dave

 

[leschowe]

Thanks Dave, I really appreciate your feedback. I will try to get down there soon.

Les

 

[GTJC460]

Thanks Les. I have a Ruger vaquero I did using the castings and some of my own designs. Would you want the high res pictures for your site?

 

[leschowe]

Hi Bert,
Absolutely! Lets take this off line. Please email me at leschowe@comcast.net with the high res photos that you would like to post. Also, please send applicable information about the firearm, and any personal/business information that would like to share with the internet world. I will try to put a page together for you on engravingtransfers.com and you can critique it.

Les

 

[Sam]

That's a sweet looking SAA, Les. Great job!

 

[Weldon47]

Looking good, Les!

Weldon

 

[Beathard]

Nice job. You're right about Turnbull.

Any idea how much gold you put into that Les? I'm getting ready to do one and want to order the correct amount.

 

[Beathard]

Did you use the 4% reduced templates for this one to make it fit within the gold?

 

[leschowe]

Thanks Sam and Weldon, It is truly an honor to receive positive comments from Master engravers like yourselves,

Les

 

[leschowe]

Hi Gerry,
I am sorry, I do not know how much gold wire that I used on this gun. I go to Rio Grande and I purchase a good supply of .025, .02, .016, and .013 inch diameter 24K gold wire. (I think that Rio Grande charges a pretty fair price for their gold wire and they are very good people to work with) I then cut a channel and select 1 or 2 wires to appropriately fill the channel and hammer it in. That said, on all of the wire inlays, other than than the barrel and cylinder wire inlays, I used .016 inch diameter wire. Note: practice on a practice plate to determine the size of graver needed to work with the .016 inch wire. If you are really worried about purchasing the exact amount of gold wire, I think that you can use some dividers to measure the total length of wire inlay you have to do. The gold wire will squish out a little, but it is pretty close to one to one. As far as cost is concerned, Mike Dubber once estimated that it was about $7.00 per inch - Don't know the cost of gold at the time that he figured that out. Hope that helps.

I did not use 4% size reduced transfers, (I just brought some of those reduced size transfers to the class to help students if they needed help.) I used the standard transfers. What I do is transfer the design as best as I can. Then I reduce some of the leafs or scrolls to fit. Sometimes I add some more elements. Sometimes I let a scroll or leaf go under the gold border.

Les

 

[Donny]

Les,

Can I ask if you turn your cylinders and barrels on a lathe to cut the channels? when in the process do you cut the ejector shroud and how?

Donny

 

[leschowe]

Hi Donny,
Yes, -time is money - I do have my cylinder and barrel basic gold inlay channels turned on a lathe. I then spend time preparing the channels for gold inlay, and inlay the gold wire. That said!!: on this gun, I went to a well known gunsmith in my area and asked him to do the lathe work. When I received the parts back, I realized that there was a significant! amount of run-out on the cylinder, it was really bad. I was panicked for a while and I spent a LOT of time fixing the mess. So, be careful!!!

I do all of the gold inlay before I cut anything. After the barrel channels are inlayed, I lay the Ejector rod housing next to the barrel (I actually insert the ERH into the frame, and screw the ERH to the barrel) and scribe where the gold inlay channels should be cut. I then carefully cut the channels by hand and inlay the gold wire.

Les

 

[Marrinan]

Thanks Les! Fred

 

[Donny]

Les,
Thanks for the reply!!! I think I'm going to get one of the older metal lathes on eBay for just this type of work and a few other project pieces I need to do.

Donny