Just got two sets of Keith's grips, and I figured it was well worth a few pictures.
First, RM # 1234, from July of 1936...Presentation grade French walnut, re-gilded medallions (from some old K-grips) to complement the engraving, and one of Dave and Jerry's grip adapters.



Next, RM # 1714, from December of 1936.
Keith again used the presentation grade walnut, and created this set of made-to-measure Roper-style target grips.
Not only do they look great, but they feel great, too!


Thanks, Keith, for the fantastic work!
Don

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Just got two sets of Keith's grips, and I figured it was well worth a few pictures.
First, RM # 1234, from July of 1936...Presentation grade French walnut, re-gilded medallions (from some old K-grips) to complement the engraving, and one of Dave and Jerry's grip adapters.



Next, RM # 1714, from December of 1936.
Keith again used the presentation grade walnut, and created this set of made-to-measure Roper-style target grips.
Not only do they look great, but they feel great, too!


Thanks, Keith, for the fantastic work!
Don

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as usual, beautiful work from kb, very much the complement for those beauties!
........ive got a few in the pipeline, cant wait for mine!

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S&WCA #2112

The gold medallions complement the gold-inlay engraving very nicely.

Later, Mike Priwer

Gorgeous guns, Don, the KB grips are really an added plus!

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John

Those RM's dress up very nicely, indeed! Keith's work is absolutely outstanding. I can't wait for him to finish restoring a set of grips for my KCPD RM. Thanks for posting these pictures. What a pair to be proud of! Regards, Jerry

PURR- TEEE!

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Very nice indeed Don. I'm glad the grip adapter worked for you.

I shoot an early post-war pre-Model 27 with a pair of Keith's Ropers that are identical to yours. They really do feel good in the hand. Mastercraftsman!

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Dave Ballantyne

Wonderful grips!! I love Keith's grips. He is the Michaelangelo of wood! He's the best!
Bill

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38-44heavyduty.com

Don, I just opened your emails to me with the photos of RM #1234 and its' new pair of Keith grips. Very nice work! I'm usually a purist when it comes to S&Ws staying as original as possible, but RM 1234 is the exception that comes along occasionally. Some of the members here may not know the background of RM #1234, as you and I do, so I'll give a brief background. Several yrs. ago, I found a mint set of Magna grips numbered to RM #1234. I called Roy Jinks and he told me he had just lettered the gun and gave me the owner's address, so I could offer the grips to him. I made the contact, however the owner of RM $1234 did not want the grips! He sent me a picture of the gun and the grips on the gun were fancy carved to match the engraving on the gun, and the original magna style would have overlapped the frame engraving, spoiling the look of the gun, so I sold the grips to another friend who had a RM and needed a pair of original magnas. RM #1234 went thru several owners and eventually arrived with Don, but without the fancy carved grips. Now Don has done a great job of making RM#1234 a very presentable S&W. Ed.

Those Keith Brown grips are magnificent, and as Mike says, the gold medallions really set off the engraving.

I am studying up on engraving these days, trying to learn more, and would appreciate hearing more about the engraving on this RM, who did it, when, the technique, and the style, to the extent known.

Initially I thought I did not care for engraving, but it is starting to grow on me...

The gun was engraved (non-factory, of course) by Benno L. (Ben) Heune.
Heune was a member of the Firearms Engravers of America, and lived in Bridgeport, CA.
His first foray into engraving came in 1944, while he was convalescing at a military hospital at Pearl Harbor. He engraved knives and guns for fellow servicemen, charging .25/word (!).
After WW II, Heune returned to Modesto, CA, where he worked as a firefighter.
In 1955, he left the fire service to buy a sporting goods store and marina in Bridgeport. (Ed knew 'Ben' then, also through his work as a guide)
Ben studied under Jack Morris in their saddle and silver shop, and he did some contract engraving work for silver shops in Reno, NV.
20 years after buying the sporting goods store, Heune sold it and took up the practice of engraving with (and teaching classes on) the 'Gravermeister, hand-engraving machine.
The 'Gravermesiter' is best likened to a miniature air-hammer, in that it is a compressed-air-powered graver, and allows the complex engraving of very hard materials (like guns).
Heune eventually sold Gravermeisters, conducted class on both manual ('graving') and Gravermeister engraving. His students ranged in age from the very young to the elderly, and there are still folks active in the profession who remember him and his classes.
Most of them I've corresponded with mention his "...kindness and patience.", and the lasting impact he left on their work and lives.
Ben Heune also taught NRA engraving classes at Lassen College in California, and for Rio Grande in Tucson, Arizona.
As Ed mentioned in a previous post, 'Heune' means 'elk' in German, and Heune signed his work (on the underside of the frame, in front of the trigger-guard) with an elk head and rack, with the name, 'Heune' below.
Benno Heune passed away in 1999.
His tools, books, stencils and other ephemera belong to a nice gentleman who's an art/jewelry engraving teacher in Stockton, CA.
He's in the process of gathering up and organizing all the material to donate it to an engraving museum.
Benno Heune wrote what is considered to be the best introductory book on engraving ever..."Basic Engraving".
The style on RM 1234?
Probably comes closest to a 'New York' style.
It is minimal, probably to allow the fine original bluing on the gun to show well.
Interestingly, the engraving on the sides of the topstrap (considered the most difficult area to engrave on any gun) exhibits very small and intricate patterns.
I'm obviously no expert on engraving, and frankly I purchased # 1234 to fill out an empty spot where I had previously sold another 6-1/2" RM.
This 'ancillary'/historical provenance is what keeps me in the hobby!
I hope this somewhat long post doesn't put everyone to sleep.
Don

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OGCA Life
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Quite the contrary, it's fascinating history!
Thanks for sharing the info, Don.

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John

Don,
My compliments on what you have done with the old gun. It certainly proves your time well-spent. Definitely a very attractice piece. I found your research on Ben Heune very interesting.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Wow, that is indeed "awesome" and NO way Don, could any of that ever put me to sleep.......maybe "dream"

nice jobs all around, thanks guys............

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dan
NRA Benefactor,PMA

Thanks, Don, for the background on Heune and the engraving. Very interesting. Somewhere down the line someone will really appreciate how you have researched that. (And it is of interest to me now so I am glad that you've done it.)

Do you know the technique used for the gold? Is it an inlay, tapped in with a hammer, into a groove or channel that it is larger at the bottom than at the top? Or is it some other technique?

I've come across "New York Style" in the SCSW, referring to Nimschke-like style. Interesting to me is that another book I have, Custom Firearms Engraving by Tom Turpin, does not even mention New York or Nimschke as a style, tho I speculate he would include it under American or Germanic. Turpin has English, American, Germanic and Bulino (Italian) as the major catgories. I am beginning to think that there is not universal agreement on how to categorize engraving styles, and that the field is more properly understood as a broad spectrum of techniques that, in an individual engraver's use of these, evolve into a unique individual style.

Arlo

Arlo,
It is 'gilt washed', and there are some nasty chemicals involved.
Powdered gold leaf is mixed/mashed with a tolulene solution, and impressed into the engraving.
(Another toxic chemical bath precedes the application.)
Following the gilding, another chemical wash follows, to remove gilding on the non-engraved surface, as well as to harden and set the gold/tolulene mixture.
The resulting channels are quite hard, unaffected by oil and gun-cleaning chemicals.
Again, as to style, I leave the determination to those who are well-schooled in engraving.
Mr. Heune wrote about balance in layouts and his reference design books by ( among others)
Nimschke, Jack Prudhomme, and Ron Smith, and George Sherwood.
He was a charter member of the Firearms Engravers Guild.
In looking at the scrollwork on # 1234 (he really liked scrolls), I see a strong resemblance to a 'western' style, and it's understandable, with his background in silver and leather tooling and engraving.
Heune had a neat method of duplicating the exact scroll pattern to each cylinder flat:
He would melt glue over the first scroll pattern, and embed a small piece of wood into the still-liquid glue.
That produced a stamp, to which he applied Chinese white, and then applied the perfect transfer to all six flats.
The finer details were applied following his basic applications.
It really worked well, as I have yet to find any visible difference among the six flats.
Don

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OGCA Life
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Don,
Both of your RMs are wonderful, but your #1234 is truly beautiful! The grips make outstanding additions. Thanks for sharing!

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Carl

Don, been sitting here with my jaw on my desk for at least ten minutes. Kieths work is becoming ledgend and that gun is absolutely stunning.
DW

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"NUTS"