Vintage label for a gun case

[santos]

I've always be fond of the kind of labels you can see in the web site Sheaf Ephemera :
http://www.sheaff-ephemera.com/list/steel-engraving/
Beautiful lettering with some ornaments around , I spent hours studying similar lettering you can find in SANBORN maps at the end of 19th century :
https://www.google.com/search?q=san...EPw4SFmAM&bih=955&biw=1920&client=firefox-b-e

I need to have a try at this style , so I draw a few sketches for a plate that will ornate the gun case I was making.


Then I engraved a copper practice plate


My original thought was to engrave it then on a german silver plate, but I decided to use my practice plate after nickel plating it


I first cut out the wood of the lid to do the inlay of the plate :


The plate was then nickel plated. I'm using a DC 3V power supply and 2 electrods of pure nickel connected to +,the copper plate is connected to -


After 1 hour the plating was complete and the finished plate was glued flush on the lid.



My gun case has now a vintage label mark and the inhabitants inside seem to be quite satisfied with the new adress plate on their sweet home

 

[santos]

Inside the gun case :

 

[John B.]

Nice Job, good work!

 

[mtlctr]

Great, thanks for showing.

 

[monk]

a beautiful job, a job to be quite proud of.

 

[Roger Bleile]

Outstanding!

 

[santos]

Thank you gentlemen for the kind comments, and thank you also to all those who liked it.

I've also always loved the rings for lifting the lids on some of the old English gun cases.


Some were branded with the owner's name.



I made several with a lathe, and then engraved the mark. On this one Mariette.


Mariette was a 19th century Belgian gunsmith.


Another for a Henry's rifle case

 

[santos]

Inside the boxes the mark was sometimes affixed with gilded letters.


I engraved gilding irons with the name Mariette to press the leather and put egg white at the bottom of the lettering.


I made a little brush out of squirrel furr to pick up the gold leaf and put it in place. Once I apply gold leaf, I
press again, heating the iron to around 80° Celsius.

 

[santos]

Late week I finished the engravingof an 1860 Colt. I needed a Colt label for its future case.


Here it is


I've made a S&W too


And here is a pic with the four major manufacturers

 

[BakersvilleHnC]

Thank you gentlemen for the kind comments, and thank you also to all those who liked it.

I've also always loved the rings for lifting the lids on some of the old English gun cases.
View attachment 52307 View attachment 52308

Some were branded with the owner's name.
View attachment 52309


I made several with a lathe, and then engraved the mark. On this one Mariette.
View attachment 52311

Mariette was a 19th century Belgian gunsmith.
View attachment 52310

Another for a Henry's rifle case
View attachment 52312

Those handles are cool. I’d be interested in seeing how you made them!!

 

[John B.]

Very nice.

 

[santos]

Those rings are not handles. They are only intended to help open the lid.
I machine them from a piece of bronze. First the disk, which is then sawn in half.

Then the U-ring that holds the two half-rings together. One is fixed, the other can rotate 90° on two axes that pass through the U.

A friend of mine has an old English box and I was able to measure its ring.

And draw a plan