Thanks Drew,

These old guns with Damascus are interesting!

Here’s another favorite of mine, Crass 4 10 gauge

Jeeez at first I thought you were indicating a .410 but now I see my mistake.
Besutiful gun!!





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That Crass 4 10 is over the top. Wonderful gun Stan.

That is some beautiful work from the folks at Fall Creek Water Power Lot No. 6, Stan. Some of those early Crass guns marked 4 are so far beyond what became the No. 4 as Ithaca grading settled out in the later hammerless models. A No. 4E from about 60 years later --

Attachment 121321

Stan: the .410 barrels are 3 Iron also. Ignore the breech, where the tube is thicker, and getting a nice pattern is harder.

I wish it was a .410:)

Forgive me for not being clear, it is a Quality/Grade 4, it is a 10 gauge:cool:

Thanks again Drew,
Stan

Grade 5 Crass
 

Daryl,
That grade 5 you have there is beautiful, I don’t recall seeing engraving quite like that before, meaning the birds forward of the dogs in a circle. Have you encountered that layout before?

Wayne’s grade 6 also has a similar layout, maybe similar to the roundells encountered on Parker’s occasionally, that is a very nice layout if you will.

I have a grade 4 with elk/deer on the side panels and then a setter on the floor plate, and then a few grade 3’s with multiple species of birds on the sides, but no dogs.

gunshow
 

Crass gun are gunshows in themselves. I don't know the engravers on the higher grades, but they seem to have fertile imaginations. I have not seen the bird/dog placement before that I can recall.

My memory is slipping:crying:

I recalled that I had picked up a 30" 16 gauge Grade 6 Crass. It is in bad shape, broken butt stock, some rust on the barrels, etc.

I decided any Grade 6 Crass is worth bringing back to some kind of respectability, even more so if it is a 16 gauge with 30" barrels.

I will post pictures later, the engraving is of the same layout as Wayne's Grade 6 and Daryl's Grade 5. There are some other features that make it really desirable in my eyes, skeleton butt plate, and the Damascus pattern is different than I've encountered on any other Crass. The pattern reminds me of the Parker manufactured laminated pattern.

Drew,
I look forward to your answer on the Damascus barrels.

Pictures of the Grade 6 16 gauge Crass

Stan,
That 16 gauge is very similar to my 12 gauge. Sure appears the same ingraver did the work.

Sure would appear that way Wayne, how about that rabbit on yours:)

I’m not real happy with the elk’s face on mine, the engraver may have forgot himself and put a dog face on the way it appears :whistle:

The serial # on the 16 is 30533

gotta love that pointer climbing the rail fence.

One of my favorite engraved guns showed a pointer, all tilted out, with 4 pups and pointing a cat all hissed up on a fence post. Wish I could show a you a picture of that.

Stanley that's a late season rut tired bull :). Seriously these are some fabulous specimens gents. Ithaca engraving, gotta love it. I do.

Daryl,

Was that gun an Ithaca? Sounds pretty neat.

These early Ithaca’s are definitely interesting, like Dave said, engraving on later guns is not really comparable as to the detail,
and early models (Crass specifically) have considerably more engraving per grade.

I met an interesting fellow who had set up an Ithaca display at this years Baltimore gun show, just to display early Ithaca guns. I believe he may have had one Flues model, everything else was earlier. He put some time into it and the display was great.

Good engraving
 

Bill, it was on a Lefever sidecocker.

Stan, I also spent some time with this display. I thought it very well done and neatly presented. Don't get too see the very early Ithacas in multiple examples in one display very often!

"Forgive me for not being clear, it is a Quality/Grade 4, it is a 10 gauge"

Missed the forest for reading the trees Stan ;) Should have noticed the big barrels!

The Grade 6 16g barrels are Damas Corche or Manufacture Extra found on Lindner Diamond Grades, and a $200 grade Parker Lifter (not Laminated Steel)

https://photos.smugmug.com/Damascus/...Ctoncin2-M.jpg

Thank you Drew,

I appreciate your expertise on the Damascus barrels!

On the Parker Laminated barrels in the photo you posted, are these Parker produced barrels with the P on the barrel flat?

The pattern doesn't quite match the Parker manufactured barrels that I've observed.

Stan

Stan: we've had several threads regarding the understandable confusion over early Parker produced Laminated Steel (Dean has an example), and later Corche barrels marked Laminated Steel

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20330

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5520

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...=7342#post7342

and at the bottom here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...UwHq93neo/edit