One of our friends built a hammer gun with Trojan barrels and forend. He inletted a Deely latch from a graded Parker but left the Trojan forend mechanism intact. It is one neat hammer gun.

Brian you have a trained eye for this kind of thing. Help me out. Other than some wear, what do you see in the checkering? To my untrained eye it looks amazing.

Yes Mike, done well one does not trump the other.

Way too course. Looks like 16 or 18 lines per inch. A gun of the grade that is trying to be replicated should have checkering of 28 lpi or higher. And finer checkering would not cause the checkering to "trump" the engraving. If anything, it will complement it. The courser checkering makes it stand out more.

checkering vs. checkering not checkering vs. engraving. Maybe the guy orderded corse then it would be right no? Never new there were absolutes in Parker's.

Well the subject gun is not original. But a custom. There are general standards, set by the fine taste that original guns were built in. And in my opinion, guns built should emulate that.

Besides, you know what they say about opinions...

Brian, don't b so hard on your opinion some may value it. I don't think the gun need critizied is all I was getting at. best ch

Rather than reshaping the Trojan frame wouldn't it have been a lot simpler to use a VH frame to start with?

The gun was not intended for anyone else, not intended for resale, not intended for any purpose other than the personal satisfaction and use of a master gunsmith and engraver as an exercise of his abilities. Yes, it would have been easier if Mr Washburn had started with a V grade frame, but so what? Yes, it has the large checkering of a Trojan grade, but again so what? Besides, removing the coarser checkering and re-checkering with finer LPI would have brought the wood level to below the metal level, the fittings would have stood out, and maybe Mr Washburn did not want that. It was done because he wanted to.

As always, posters are invited to post photos of their own work in comparison and for discussion.

And maybe Mr Washburn wanted to hunt with the gun and wanted courser checkering for grip in the field. It's a custom gun ! So it's only up to him what he wants not what others feel should have been done. It was "his" gun.....