A pair to draw to. Or with. Colts they be

[earlmck]

Oldest grandson got a request to build something to mount this pair of Colt 45's in their holster for display. While he is working on the design he is storing them in my gun safe (yes they are safe with me -- I am a double action guy). I am not a big fan of engraved firearms (although this appears to my untutored eye to be a very nice job) but on closer inspection I decided these have a great deal of character: judging from the wear of the holster and the wear of the handles, somebody wore the holster a lot and drew the pistols about a jillion times before the engraving took place. Serial numbers are 226XXX and 256XXX so I guess that makes them brothers but not twins? And these bracket the serial number of my grandad's old Colt which dates 1900 +/- a few, so these are from that time period. Engraver signed his work as T. Moro, 2004. I googled him unsuccessfully. I have no clue who owned these to put the use on them prior to the engraving, which would maybe have been for their 100th birthday.

Oh yes, somebody fired them to make sure they went "bang!" after the engraving process and failed to clean them afterwards. Not a lot of shooting, may have been just one shot. I cleaned them and left a light bit of oil behind... somebody may decide "to heck with the engraving, I'm going to shoot them" off in the future.

I thought some of you would appreciate seeing them, so took some pictures. These are not photobucket pics so you need to mouse click them to see full-size.

HolsterandPistols8872s.jpg

Pistols8877s.jpg

PistolRightSide8879s.jpg

PistolLeftSide8881s.jpg

GripRight8882s.jpg

EngraverTMoro8888s.jpg

[Booger Bill]

Your hurting me!

[Gascozark]

Wow! Those are NICE!

[Hagler]

Earl,

Could that "T. Moro" be former Leverguns member "Graver Tom"?

Shawn

[gamekeeper]

Wow! Those are NICE!

+1.....

[piller]

That took quite a lot of skill. I am impressed with the work that T. Moro did. Just my opinion, but that wouldn't lower the value of them in any way.

[M. M. Wright]

Lovely. Just simply lovely.
Are they silver plated? It appears so to me. I'll bet they had a lot of freckling which was covered up by the engraving.

[earlmck]

Earl,

Could that "T. Moro" be former Leverguns member "Graver Tom"?

Shawn

I'm kind of a newcomer so I don't recollect a member "Graver Tom". But that's the best lead I've had suggested.

That took quite a lot of skill. I am impressed with the work that T. Moro did. Just my opinion, but that wouldn't lower the value of them in any way.

No, I'm sure that beautiful engraving didn't lower the value -- it just makes them so nice I'd be very hesitant to take them out to the old gravel pit for a bit of tin-can plunking. Which is what I like to do with my weapons.

[Hagler]

Earl,

My brain was not fully engaged. I read "T. Moro", and I got his name confused with someone else. I was thinking of Tom McArdle:

http://www.pbase.com/engravertom/engravertom

Tom is a full time engraving artist able to work in various styles, including lettering, logos, monograms, Coats of Arms, decorative abstract scroll, natural scenery, and precious metal inlay.

...and he works for Doug Turnbull, too:

http://www.turnbullmfg.com/store.asp?pid=37681

Tom McArdle, our in-house engraver and his set-up.

Shawn

[1894c]

thank you for sharing...very very nice... :)

[plowboy 45]

Man, he's got to be proud of them
They sho nough be good lookin guns