I have previously pictured this K-38 here and there is various threads where appropriate, but it probably deserves a thread of its own, so here goes.

About a year ago at the Nations Gunshow in Chantilly, Virginia, this K-38 made an appearance and was for sale. Although I am mostly drawn to Pre-War .357 Magnums with researchable provenance, this gun got ahold of me and wouldn’t let go - much like the effect that Glenfiddich Scotch Whisky previously had on me. Although I was having a hard time releasing it from my clutches at the show, I did manage to take some quick phone pictures and message them off to one of our well known resident engraving connoisseurs, RKmesa. I could quickly tell that my pictures and the information I sent to RK got his immediate attention. That was all I needed to proceed with the purchase, and for what I thought was a fairly reasonable price.

Anyway, as you can see in some of the pictures below, the gun is marked “Kurt Jaeger, Mainz” on the left side of the top strap. So naturally I initially thought the gun was engraved by Kurt Jaeger. However, in my subsequent discussions with RK, he made me aware of the fact that many of the engraved guns marked as such were in fact engraved BY Claus Willig FOR Kurt Jaeger’s engraving business. RK also gave me Mr. Willig’s email address and suggested that I contact him to confirm that my K-38 was engraved by him. I subsequently emailed the serial number and pictures of my K-38 to Mr. Willig and asked if he could confirm it as one of his works. This was his exact reply:

“Hi Mr Lester. Your S&W is engraved for sure in our shop, before the 1960s. At that time ( 1955) I started recording all my engravings . In your case my father did the scenes and I did the goldlines and the English. It is always a great pleasure to see early jobs so many years later again. Sincerely Claus Willig”

Claus Willig was approximately 20 years old when he engraved this piece. His father’s name was Emil. Their engraving shop was in Schweinfurt and they did many engravings for Kurt Jaeger. For those that are interested there is an excellent article about them on the German Hunting Guns Website at
Willig, Emil & Claus – German Hunting Guns and so I will not repeat that information here.

As I stated above, I have now had this K-38 for about a year. When I was trying to research it I discovered, with RKmesa’s assistance, that it had previously sold at a Morphy Auction in November of 2018 (note a couple of the below pictures are credited to Morphy Auctions). When I purchased it at the Nations Gun Show in July 2019 the dealer told me that he got the gun as part of a collection from the previous owner’s widow. The dealer also mentioned that the K-38 was basically a one-off in essentially a long gun collection. Anyway, this is the way I now have it identified:

•S&W K-38 Masterpiece Pre-Model 14, Serial No. K272259•
•6" Barrel, Patridge Front Sight, Square Notch Rear Sight•
•Factory Shipped November 30, 1956 to H. H. Harris Co., Chicago, IL•
•Engraved by Claus & Emil Willig In Late 1950’s•
•For The Engraving Shop Of Kurt Jaeger of Mainz Germany•
•Finished In French Nickel & High Polish Blue•
•Complete Coverage With English Scroll & Gold Outlines•
•Includes Two Gold Inlay Scenes, Engraved Butt Cap, & Checkered Ivory Grips•

I have literally taken dozens of pictures of this gun but none of them accurately portray its beauty. The scroll background is relieved and lined which provides tremendous contrast especially in the areas finished in nickel, and in certain lighting angles the scenes almost appear three dimensional. Anyway, below are a few of those pictures. I know there are other fabulous Willig engraved pieces residing with our members; please share them in this thread as they cannot be seen too often.




Photo Credit - Morphy Auctions


Photo Credit - Morphy Auctions

__________________
Terry Lester

Absolutely beautiful gun and you should be proud to own a wonderful piece of artwork...............a true work of art.

__________________
Sal,
SWCA #2768

Terry:

Outstanding K-38 Masterpiece that the Willigs turned into THE MASTERPIECE. I love that gun and the SD Meyers leather you paired it with is also outstanding. Claus and his father Emil are some of my favorite engravers. There work is always over-the-top in a way that looks just right rather than gaudy. As usual, your research and write-up add color and enjoyment for the rest of us. Thank you for sharing.

I would agree. Here are a few photos of my only piece engraved by the Willigs - a blued model 19-4 (details can be found here: A Modern Masterpiece - Claus Willig Engraved 357 )





Looking forward to others posting their Willig-engraved Guns.

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

My thanks to both of you gentlemen for some nice dreams as I put my head on my pillow this evening.

Absolutely stunning gun, Terry!
Thanks for sharing it with us.

__________________
John

Beautiful Terry! Pls explain how the bottom of the grips fit “ into” the frame butt. I’ve never seen that b4. Amazing work! Dave
Are those initials on the butt? What do they signify?

__________________
Illegitimi non carborundum

Beautiful work.

Congratulations on your acquisition.

Thank you for sharing it.

Oh my! I called my wife into the room to see that beauty (and she doesn't follow guns!)

__________________
Support Israel!

Stunning! Love the grip cap "noggin knocker". I'm surprised you don't see caps more often. Wow..

Dave, there is a steel tab that is attached laterally across the butt strap with a screw hole near both ends. A screw is inserted through those holes which goes up into the base of each ivory grip panel. Also, the frame cuts at the top of the back strap and front strap are more angled than originally cut at the factory to help secure the ivory grip panels at the top. When the butt cap is installed it puts additional pressure on the base of the ivory grip panels and presses them tight against the sides of the straps. There is no movement of the ivory grips once the butt cap is tightened down.

Yes, there are the initials “CWH” inlaid in gold on the butt cap. I assume they are the initials of the owner of this K-38, probably a military man, that commissioned the engraving of this gun with Kurt Jaeger back in the 1950’s. I asked Mr. Willig about the initials. He told me that he did not do the butt cap and that it was probably done by a Mr. Schildbach who was another engraver for Kurt Jaeger. At this point I have no idea who “CWH” was.

__________________
Terry Lester

That is a spectacular example of what a Master Engraver is capable of

I remember a tease of this piece of Art in a holster thread late last year

These are the pieces that make you think of how you might have spent your money differently . . . . I really did not have to buy the New SUV, I could have picked up a revolver instead

__________________
"Acta non verba"

Oh my! I HATE you guys!!

__________________
Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Your K-38 is an amazing work of art. As Richard said, not gaudy, but such intricate detail! I know you said you've had it for a year, but I think "Congratulations on owning such beautiful artwork" can't be said enough.
And Richard's 19 is right up there with it, although the extra two inches of barrel nudges the K-38 over the finish line first....
Thank you both, it's like looking in a museum catalog!

If that was my gun, I would change my name, to match the initials.

Beautiful gun........

Beautiful Work.
A few small but fine details make great work even greater.
Like the use of a simple break or skip-over line in the gold line of the order and the insertion of a gold 'dot' at that point.
Instead of bringing the gold border line right to a point at a sharp corner as on the frame at a couple places, the engraver stops just short, makes a quick side-step with the line and then continues with it. At the point of the interuption, the tiny gold dot is placed.

Not done at every corner, just a few well thought out points to make it interesting and to break up what can be a monotonous over use sometimes of border gold.
The small scroll gold line at the end of a border to tie up the end is also used as are scalloped lines on long straight borders lines (barrel) and soft geometric designs that seem to wrap up into themselves.
You see it on the Model 19 as well.
Gold line bordering can be boring if done just for the sake of seeing a gold line around the edges and no other reason.

Even the engraver that did the grip cap engraving used the border line around the cap with a break in the line and a dot at each break at 12,3,6 & 9.

A liner tool is a nice way to do relief cutting. It's not done that way much anymore for some reason.
The tool leaves not only a slightly relief to the background, but the simple fact of the multi parallel lines it can cut leave a surface that appears dark as it doesn't reflect light very well. A nice plus to the relief work. A French Grey/Antique Nickel type finish will usually darken that even more as well as the engraved cuts themselves.

..note the engraving vise's steel 'top jaws' in the close up pic of the butt cap. ( One jaw swivels, the other is solid so you can hold slightly tapered pieces easier w/o having to hold them in position w/ tapered wooden block on one side (like I do!).

Engraver Schildbach had been using their flat surfaces as a handy area to check the sharpness, cutting feel and other aspects of his gravers after sharpening while in the middle of doing work.
Very common to see on a working engravers vise.

The small holes in the swivel jaws are for removable & different profile 'pins' placed in each jaw to hold odd and sometimes fragile shaped parts and pieces.
Jewelry engravers use(d) them a lot to hold watch cases and other thin items to engrave. No crushing allowed.
The idea is still useful in some gun engraving work.

2152hq, thank you for continuing my engraving education - it’s very much appreciated. I guess I should try to clarify something with regards to the grip cap.

When I first purchased this K-38 the grip cap had a small gold plate soldered over the existing monogram and looked like this......


Photo Credit - Morphy Auctions

I had no idea what was under the plate but I felt the plate was totally out of character with the rest of the gun, so I took a very small screw driver and carefully pried the plate off. This is what I found.......



I wasn’t exactly sure what I had at this point but I knew I did not want to leave the grip cap looking like that. I subsequently made contact with Lisa Tomlin, a very well known engraver that resides here in Virginia, and she agreed to repair the grip cap for me. She polished off the remaining solder which revealed that the gold inlaid monogram was damaged in the center portion of each letter.......



To maintain the integrity of the existing gold she cleaned up the area, cut a center line in the monogram, and recut and bead punched outside of each letter. She used hammer and chisel which she believed was the method of engraving that was originally done on the grip cap - probably by Shildbach........



I was extremely pleased with Lisa Tomlin’s work and feel that she really rescued a piece that was so deserving.........

__________________
Terry Lester

So it got some extra Wolf & Klar style inlay work somewhere in it's travels too!

Very nice restoration work by Lisa Tomlin. Great attention to original detail.

I'll credit her for using the swivel jaws on the GRS vise as scratch note paper for the gravers !.

She's one of the best engravers around as far as I'm concerned.
Several different styles and AFAIK she does all her work with hammer & chisel or hand graver. No air assist tools.
That's very rare these days.

That is an amazing revolver, thanks for showing us.

The only handgun I've ever purchased "engraved", I got at a discount based on the fact of engraving... If that gives any clues as to impressive nature!
Smiths in 'Full Dress', fabulous works of art!
My take
John

Throwing this thread to the top with a few photos of another Willig engraved Outdoorsman masterpiece from this great thread by model3sw: UPDATED Another old scratched up N Frame ...

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

I have a 44 Magnum sent to Germany by S&W in late 1957 for engraving a gold inlay. It was most likely done by Gustav Schildbach and returned to S&W for shipment to Rex Firearms in NYC. The information was provided by the German Gun Collectors. Click on the photo for a better look.

Bill

Absolutely breathtaking ! Congrats ! I have an early 1950's .38-44 Outdoorsman engraved and gold inlaid by Claus Willis in 1969. Thanks also to RKMesa who helped me identify the "Claus". It was like Christmas 1959 all over again when I found that one at some back alley, local auction.

See: UPDATED Another old scratched up N Frame ...

Best Regards, Sal Raimondi

__________________
ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

Those posted here are some real works of art.

Thanks Sal! This thread would not be complete without pictures of your fabulous Willig engraved 38-44 Outdoorsman - kindly posted and credited by RKmesa in post# 21 above!

__________________
Terry Lester

The guns in this thread are all most other worldly. I don't see how a human can do such work.
The attention to detail is stunningly beautiful!