S&W-66 Just finishing up

[JRon]

This is a short barrel S&W stainless I've just fininshed with a wire enlayed 24kt gold eagle on the side plate. This will be fired often and I don't have any worries about the enlay coming out. The engraving is a victorian scroll with background reliefed.

[KDavid]

That is beautiful, a very well balanced design. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Peter]

That looks nice. I like your scroll design very much.

Peter

[JRon]

David and Peter:
Thanks for the reply, I work an average of three guns at a time to kep from going bonkers. I had this one for about 12 months to completion. It seems you never get ahead. The scrollwork is one I've used the last ten years and is very popular, especially on 1911's The S&W cuts very good with carbide power and push.
J.R.French

[WVEngraver]

Hi JR,

The inlay is awesome. I like the way S&W's cut too. How did you handle darkening the background? The consensus is to use a durable black paint in the stippling (which I've always done as well) but I've been toying with the idea of using a stainless blackening solution for gun parts ....

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/black.htm#stainless

[JRon]

Chris:
The background is matted first with a round carbide tool with a flat angle ground point first, then, old faithfull "Rustoleum flat black" whiped with finger and a second application and hour later. This is the best I have found to use.
It was always a problem to keep it in for any lenght of time, but this works rather well.
Best regards,
J.R,French

[WVEngraver]

Thank-you JR ... I've got the barrel and cylinder for a 629 completed and I might give the blackening solution a little test. I have a feeling, however, that nothing beats the black paint on stainless.

Again ... great work!

[rookie]

Very nice, thanks for sharing.