JTC Western Engraving

This morning I’ve spent a few hours engraving the Ruger Bisley model of Vaquero. It is cutting very well and I’m making good progress. I’m at a point where the design extends onto the pistol grip and the scrolls must flow from the frame part onto the pistol grip part and back to the frame.

The issue here is my jig that holds the frame is too small to hold both parts. Both parts must be reassembled in order for the engraving lines to match up exactly.

I’m thinking that while I have the frame all mounted in the jig I will just flip it over and start the other side of the frame. Then after completing that side up to the point where I need the pistol frame attached to continue, I will tackle the two parts assembled.

Not how I would normally do a project but these Bisley pistols are really large and the design does not normally flow across two parts. This should be a nice challenge.

Here’s an update photo of the frame scrolls.

Serial number side of Vaquero frame.

So after writing that first part of this post I went back to the bench and looked at the two parts. The Bisley model is a BIG hand gun and It just looked too large for my jig that holds the parts for engraving. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I could index the two parts so when they were put together the scroll lines would line up.

I was looking at the two parts and just tried to hold them together. To my amazement I could fit them together in the jig. So I dug out the screws and reassembled the pistol while on the jig. It fit together with about 1 mm of clearance. So the indexing problem just disappeared. I went over to the vise, placed the jig with the two parts into the vise and got to engraving.

Still amazed that I was able to get all that under the microscope and held securely. Check out the photo.

Ruger frame and pistol grip engraved.

I’m making very good progress on the Ruger Vaquero. Finished the trigger guard and the back strap on the righthand pistol. Just two problems to deal with on this part.

First is that this large part is a pain to figure out the best way to hold it for engraving. Finally settled on a bunch of leather stacked against the grip. Still allowed a bit of movement but for the most part it held tight.

Second issue was the back strap had a section that was very hard. No matter how slow I pushed, the tip of the graver kept breaking. After six re-sharpenings I got through that section and back into better metal.

I transferred the customers name onto the back strap and was just getting ready to start cutting when it dawned on me that the name could be larger. So I started all over again, Cleaned the metal, transferred a larger name and it fit perfectly. Just the right border top and bottom and the script font looks great with the scrolls.

I’ll take a photo of this in the morning. Lighting is just not right for a good photo.

Stay tuned for more…

Still pencil working these two Ruger Vaquero “Bisley” models. In the final approval stages of all the designs for the pistols. When the gun owner and I met he mentioned that his Dad did leather carving and that he really liked flower designs. So I changed the design to include a flower design typically used in leather work. I think it looks good on the loading gates.

The owner is also a musician and I’m saving the bottom of the pistol grip for a few musical surprises for him.

As soon as these designs are approved I’m ready to get started. I’m planning on about 14 hours per pistol and I hope that will work. Curved surfaces like the cylinder can really slow you down and the constant readjusting and repositioning of the cylinder will surely eat up a bunch of time. So we kept the cylinder design pretty simple to help keep the work within budget.

Well, I tried to load the design drawings in here but the file is WAY too big. So you will just have to wait and see each part get engraved.

Ruger Vaquero disassembled