Engraving
 

Was all the engraving on receivers done by hand if so how long would it take back in the day?

Yes it was all done by hand on Parkers.

The length of time it took depended entirely on the grade of the gun / level of engraving.

I suspect a Grade 1 or 2 might take roughly three to four hours whereas a Grade 6 could take several days, IMO.





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I am surprised that Dean did not mention that Parker did do some rolled “engraving” on low grade lifters for a short period of time.

I never thought of mentioning that Brian. I guess because I don’t consider rolled or stamped embellishments to even compare to the art of true hand-engraving any more than I consider press-back chairs to be any form of true woodworking… but yes, some of the lowest grades, like the 0 and 1 grades of hammer guns.





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Ever since getting this $85 Grade Lifter from 1880 I just assumed it had “rolled” engraving. I took some closeup photos just now to illustrate, but upon closer inspection I can see the chisel marks, some with overrun. This gun had me fooled, though the engraving pattern is very basic.

Yes Bruce, I can see on the lock plate that the graver was tapped with a hammer.





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