Thank you for the comments everyone.
Danny , When I was in Brescia I carried a powerbook, I noticed several Macs in workshops and plenty of other computer stuff used for cadcam design of gunparts, internet and advertising artwork.
As to my PC background, I was at Heald college in San Francisco in 1980. One of the instructors had an ARPANET connection. Back then, as I remember it, the Intel 8088 processor was the big thing, At one time I had all of the machine language commands for that processor memorized. Since then I have drifted away from serious electronics.
Ron, Except for a few,the Italians did not seem too interested in hi tech engraving equipment. It is like a different planet over there. More Arms are hand engraved in Italy than on the rest of the earth put together.
I have not been inside the factory, but I believe Beretta employs the largest number of engravers, and I was told they use hammer and chisel. One needs to take into account the fact that hundreds of engravers are professionally trained inhouse every year in europe, and many fall by the wayside. the ones who stay in the biz are generally the cream of the crop, and can produce excellent engraving with primitive tools at a speed which would cause the heads of most of our fellow american engravers to spin.
To do good bulino all a highly trained, skilled engraver with natural aptitude needs is a graver and a stone. When said engraver reaches twentyfive or so, then they need a loupe.
To use myself as an example, I did not use any magnification at all until I was about thirty, even though I spent thousands of hours as a bench engraver in the mercenary service of several different firms. When I was first trained at seventeen, I could focus on the work in my block, when it was one half inch from my nose.
Arms engraving evolves naturally from two elements: Carbon and Iron.
Engraving in historical fact has been influenced more by geology, geography and demography than any thing else. The centers of arms engraving throughout history have followed the centers of production, and the centers of production were usually as close as possible to the capital of the empire in a secure area where there is coal and iron ore. This is why Damascus was a center for the Persian empire, and then the Moslems, and Brescia for various empires since the days of Rome. And there is the example of Liege. And the great american gun companies.This scenario has repeated time and again in many locations as the centers of empire changed.
In England it was Birmingham, and the nearby city of London, the cultural center of the upper classes, that had the money of the aristocracy, the empire, in which were the animals to hunt, and the ships to deliver them to the empire. These factors came together to make London the center of the gun engraving world until the collapse of said empire in the post WWII period.
The italians have taken over much the high end I believe, partly because of the fact they are two hours by private jet from the oil empires of the Arabian peninsula.
It still remains to be seen how deeply the flattening of the earth by the internet, and centralized steel production will effect these geographic realities. Steel is still made from iron ore and coal. Once manufactured, it is expensive to ship, due to its weight. When the shipping problem of raw steel is overcome then one needs a geographic density of skilled workers to manufacture weapons at a reasonable enough price to support the base of a market which creates the environment in which entry level consumers over the years become, or inspire entry level collectors to support, a diverse and healthy collectors' market.
Some business planners hope that if they advertise enough, train enough engravers, hire enough Masters, and award a degree in fine arts, they can make a small town in the midwest the center of the engraving world. If they succeed it will be the first time in history the center of engraving has moved away from the earth from which it grew. We can only wish them luck.
American workers have often competed with overseas workers by increasing productivity through technology. American Engravers can only benefit by hi tech productivity strategy. My friend Bob Evans once referred to using the best technology and tools as " Skill multiplication". I think that is a great term. Lindsay tools and microscopes can easily fit into that productivity increasing strategy.
I hope this partly answers the questions.
