Time Parker needed to engrave Grade 3/DHE?

[Tom Jay]

Reading a few threads recently discussing Parker factory engraving I wonder how long the whole process to engrave a Grade 3 Top Lever or DH grade equivalent would have taken? How'd Parker go about the task, i.e. Did in-house engravers do the scroll work first before going to a contract engraver for dogs/birds or vice versa? Did the guns remain in-house and engraving contractors came in to do the work or done offsite? The Grade 3 hammer I have was ordered in October 1886 and shipped in March 1887, how much of that time was spent engraving?

I can go on and on with questions I have about how Parker put an order through production, but a quick summary from someone who knows the Parker's process would be Just as interesting. Does anybody have such knowledge? Was there any assembly line work where parts were pulled from a parts bin? What were the custom processes particular to each gun? All fascinating questions for me.

[Kevin McCormack]

All Parker engraving was done in-house unless contracted out under special request or order designated by the customer (e.g., I want my gun engraved by Ulrich; Kornbrath, etc.). Many times less-experienced engravers (apprentices) were assigned to do plain scroll work (borders, screw heads, etc.), then advanced, more accomplished engravers would complete the dog, bird, or game scenes. Of course only the master engravers were assigned the top grade guns.

There are records somewhere showing the amount of time consumed in engraving a gun, but they are mostly based on a complete engraving job and do not take into account, say, the time a gun lay aside with scroll work completed, but waiting for a game scene to be completed.

Master engraver Bob Runge told me that the engraving on an A-1 Special from start to finish typically took a master engraver such as himself or his father around 140 hours to execute. By sharp contrast, 'chasing' the engraving on a Grade 3 (D) hammerless in preparation for restoration re-case coloring and hardening / rebluing could be done in as little as 30 minutes by and experienced engraver.

[Dean Romig]

Having spent my entire 'working life' in retail I can't begin to count the thousands of times I would have liked to say, "Please be more patient - you are not my only customer, many are ahead of you and I haven't even started on their order yet." but I rarely ever did.

The fact that the order was received and recorded on a particular date means very little when it comes to when the order was taken from the slot on the wall and parts were selected to be fitted to make a gun. They may have begun work on it just a couple of weeks prior to the gun being shipped.

My guess, in a relatively high-volume engraving room where possibly a couple of experienced (who were working against the clock) people worked on a single D grade could probably knock one out in about three or four hours. (JMHO)






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[Kevin McCormack]

For more information on engravers and engraving at Parker Bros. at Meriden and Ilion, see The Double Gun Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 3 (Autumn), "When I Paint My Masterpiece."

[Tom Jay]

Thank you all for your contributions to the thread. I'm in manufacturing and I find insight into other manufacturing processes fascinating.